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HOLINESS 



AND THE 



HUMAN ELEMENT 



BY 

H. A. BALDWIN 

Author of "The Indwelling Christ," "Lessons for Seekers 

of Holiness," "Objections to Entire Sanctifica- 

tion Considered," etc. 



PENTECOSTAL PUBLISHING CO., 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 



*OCCCCC<>5CCCCCO<«OCCCCCC<>QCCOOOCCC<»OOC<^ 






Copyright, 1919 

BY 

H. A. Baldwin. 



AUG 1 1 i^i9 



©CI.A529796 



INTRODUCTION. 

The doctrine of entire sanctification sustains 
such an important relation to the perfect salva- 
tion that Christ has purchased for the children 
of men that it cannot be overlooked or neglected 
without serious loss to the soul. Perhaps there 
is no essential doctrine of the Bible that is so little 
understood, and about which so much confusion 
exists in the minds of many good people, as this 
one. The design of this book is to throw light up- 
on the subject. 

There are very few preachers who have such 
clear views concerning the doctrine and experi- 
ence of entire sanctification as has the writer of 
this book entitled, "Holiness and the Human Ele- 
ment." Most of the confusion and perplexity 
which has arisen in relation to the experience 
has been occasioned by a failure to understand 
the intimate relation existing between the physi- 
cal, the mental and the spiritual natures with 
which we are endowed. In analyzing Christian 
experience in its bearing on this threefold na- 
ture, the author has made the clearest of distinc- 
tions, and by so doing has cleared away much of 
the fog and uncertainty that has settled around 
that phase of the subject. The author has been 
enabled to show what holiness really does for soul 
and for body, and has placed the standard just 
where it is found in the Word of God. If the 
standard of holiness is raised too high some will 
be discouraged and give up; if it is set too low 
some will be inclined to live in sin ; hence the im- 



portance of having a standard that is neither too 
high nor too low, such as has been presented by 
the author of this volume. 

I regard this book as a valuable contribution 
to holiness literature. I have read the manu- 
script carefully and have been profited and 
strengthened by its perusal. Part of this work 
has been printed in the columns of a religious 
journal, and some who have read it there have ex- 
pressed a conviction that the articles should be 
put into permanent form for general circulation. 

The book is not only designed to help ministers 
of the gospel in their work of preparing sermons, 
but is intended to give every person assistance in 
building up a stalwart Christian character and 
attaining to that perfection without which no 
man shall see the Lord. 

I heartily commend this volume to holiness peo- 
ple of all denominations, feeling assured that it 
will prove to be a means of making them stronger 
in the divine life and of helping them all heaven- 
ward. Rev. J. T. Logan. 



PREFACE. 

Some of the reasons for writing the following 
pages may be of interest to the prospective read- 
er. In our association with the holiness move- 
ment we have encountered two extremes in state- 
ment : one so thoroughly negatives the human ele- 
ment as to intimate that the life of a holy man 
will be all but angelic, while the other allows so 
much for the human that, in some respects, there 
would be very little difference between the life of 
the sanctified and that of the sinner. 

Again, in our study of the literature of holiness 
we have noted the fact that, with few exceptions, 
writers stop short of the practical application of 
the experience by failing to show how grace does 
co-exist with human frailties, and by so doing they 
leave the inquirer to grope his way through the 
mazes of disturbing elements as best he can. Re- 
ligious teachers of all classes are too often content 
to deal with generalities and seldom descend to 
particulars. But the thing that puzzles the av- 
erage disciple is to be able always to properly 
apply general rules to the intricacies of their 
own daily lives and feelings. 

Often in the public utterances of teachers of 
holiness there is such a confusion of claims and 
counter claims that we have feared the novice 
would be placed somewhat in the position of a 
mariner with a defective compass, or a traveler 
with a number of disagreeing guides. 

We do not claim to have settled all the ques- 
tions that may arise, neither do we claim to have 



settled any question to the satisfaction of all. We 
have just done our best to discover the proper 
line and to keep to the divine order of things. 
Others might have done better had they set them- 
selves to the task, but since, as far as we have 
been able to discover, they have not done so, we 
trust the reader will accept our effort as well-in- 
tentioned, and, to the best of our light, after years 
of study and observation, as far as we have gone, 
a true analysis of the heart, feelings and life of 
holy men who are still living in the flesh and com- 
passed about with human infirmities. We would 
not knowingly draw the line in such a way as to 
allow for or excuse evil, neither do we wish to 
make that man sad whom the Lord approves. 

The various sections of the following work were 
originally published as newspaper articles, and we 
have made little or no attempt to change or im- 
prove them, and bespeak the forbearance of those 
who would be critical because of either literary 
deficiency or lack of theological statement. It is 
experience and not dogmatic accuracy for which 
we aim. Our attempt is to win the soul not to 
please the intellect. If we succeed in this, or in 
assisting towards this end even in the least de- 
gree, we shall consider the result well worth our 
labors. 

H. A. Baldwin. 
March 22, 1919. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter Page 

1. Statement and Definitions 9 

2. Causes of Confusion IS 

3. Various Statements 18 

4. Discouragement 24 

5. Discouragement, Continued 29 

6. Ecstatic Feelings 36 

7. Righteous Indignation 41 

8. Feelings 49 

9. Nerves 54 

10. Nerves, Continued 60 

11. Fear 64 

12. Worry 73 

13. Infirmities 83 

14. Physical Infirmities 86 

15. Mental Infirmities 94 

16. Infirmities of the Spirit 106 

17. Lack of Spiritual Vision 109 

18. Wandering Thoughts 116 



CHAPTER I. 

STATEMENT AND DEFINITIONS. 

The saintly Fletcher says: "It is excessively 
wrong to conclude that all these burdens, infirmi- 
ties, appetites, passions, and aversions are those 
sinful workings of our corrupt nature, which are 
sometimes called the 'flesh.' You cannot continue 
a whole day in deep prostration of body and soul, 
nor perhaps one hour upon your knees; your 
stomach involuntarily rises at the sight of some 
food which some persons esteem delicious; your 
strength fails in outward works ; your spirits are 
exhausted; you faint or sleep, when others are 
active and toil ; you need the spiritual and bodily 
cordials which others can administer; perhaps 
also you are afflicted with disagreeable sensa- 
tions in the outward man, through the natural 
necessary play of the various springs which be- 
long to flesh and blood; your just grief vents 1 it- 
self in tears ; your zeal for God is attended with a 
proper anger at sin; nay, misapplying what the 
apostle says of the carnal man under the law, you 
may declare with great truth, 'The [extensive] 
good I would, I do not; and the [accidental] evil 
I would not, that I do ;' I would convert every sin- 
ner, relieve every distressed object, and daily visit 
every sick bed in the kingdom ; but cannot do it. 
9 



10 Holiness and the Human Element 

I would never try the patience of my friends, nev- 
er stir up the envy of my rivals, never excite the 
malice of my enemies; but I cannot help doing 
this undesigned evil as often as I strongly exert 
myself in the discharge of my duty." 

The reasons why so many fail to comprehend 
the experience of entire sanctification are as nu- 
merous and varied as are the dispositions of the 
numberless persons who are concerned ; and, as a 
consequence, it is impossible that any line of in- 
struction should fit all, and concrete examples 
must be advanced in order that definite instruc- 
tions may be given, but, in the absence of such 
examples, we must either be content to confine 
ourselves to some general rules which are capable 
of specific application, or suppose examples which 
will illustrate certain classes of individuals. What 
we have to say will be a blending of these two 
methods. 

Many persons make the mistake of observing 
their own experience, and sometimes the observa- 
tion is very superficial indeed, and thus reach cer- 
tain conclusions which they form into universal 
rules and proceed to apply to one and all without 
respect to character, surroundings, make up, de- 
gree of light, or physical or mental conditions 1 . 
By such a course souls are utterly confused, and 
are unable to reach satisfactory conclusions as to 
their duty and standing. 

Remember, my brother, that the only test of 
holiness is deliverance from sin, and not cer- 



Holiness and the Human Element 11 

tain peculiar manifestations which you observe 
in your own experience. These manifesta- 
tions have to do with your own peculiar temper- 
ament and not with your heart conditions. 

This brings out the thought that if the exper- 
ience of holiness were stripped of the human ele- 
ment it would be the simplest thing in the world, 
but, owing to the presence of this complex ele- 
ment, the manifestations, both inward and out- 
ward, for which we can look when one professes 
the experience, become so exceedingly complex, 
that at times we almost despair of clearing up 
the fog with which, even by well-meaning people, 
the doctrine is surrounded. 

Let us draw the distinction between the two 
works of grace: Many theologians teach that 
justification and sanctification are the same in 
kind, and that they differ only in degree, that is, 
holiness is only a bigger blessing. To us this 
seems to be a fundamental mistake, tending only 
to foster error and to befog the real point at is- 
sue — deliverance from the carnal mind. 

When a person is justified (and we here use 
the word "justified" in its broad sense, including 
all the accompaniments of initial salvation,) 
first, all his sins are forgiven, and all his moral 
relations with both God and men, and the uni- 
verse are changed. God reveals, by the witness 
of the Spirit, the fact of forgiveness, translates 
the recipient into the kingdom of Christ, and 
adopts him into the family. He also fills this 



12 Holiness and the Human Element 

newly saved one with joy as a result of his de- 
liverance from sin and condemnation, and gives 
a deep and blessed consciousness of divine favor. 
But in addition to all this, God introduces into 
his moral faculties a new vigor, by which he is 
enabled to hold under control the sinful tendencies 
which still characterize the essence of the soul, 
and to defeat the temptations of the devil. New 
"lamps are hung through his intellect" by which 
he is enabled to discern the presence of moral 
evil, and the will of God. God puts new quick- 
ness, tenderness and control into the renewed con- 
science, new intensities into all the good sensibil- 
ities, and new energy into the will. 

The additional work which is accomplished in 
sanctification is the removal of inbred corruption 
and the intensification of the graces already re- 
ceived ; this intensification coming more from the 
removal of remaining and hindering depravity 
than from the addition of new measures of grace. 



CHAPTER II. 
CAUSES OF CONFUSION. 

We are in the habit of saying that the present 
world is a place of trial. If this is true, and there 
is no doubt that it is, then there must be enough 
lack of comprehension to cause at least some de- 
gree of uncertainty or there would be no need of 
faith, our patience would never be exercised, and, 
as for consequence, there could be no reward for 
firmness under temptation. The trial of your 
faith is much more precious than gold. Blessed 
is he that endureth temptation. 

When we say "uncertainty" we do not mean to 
cast any cloud around the witness of the Spirit, 
for this is God-given and positive. But the un- 
certainty arises from the peculiar feelings, move- 
ments, aversions, temptations, suggestions, and 
erroneous standards of measurement which are 
inseparable from us during our earthly sojourn. 
If all of these things could be immediately and 
unerringly analyzed on every occasion, one can 
readily see that the soul would become infallible, 
and trial would be a thing of the past. 

Because we fail to preach definitely and intel- 
ligently on the subject of holiness we leave people 
in darkness and confusion. Notwithstanding our 
strong professions, yet it remains a fact that the 
13 



14 Holiness and the Human Element 

doctrine of holiness is not emphasized as strongly 
as it should be; very few ever expound the doc- 
trine in a series of sermons ; more mention it often 
in the course of their public ministrations, but, 
sad to say, we have heard of some who never 
preach definitely on the experience or insist on its 
necessity. Definite preaching should cause defin- 
ite seeking, and definite seeking should produce 
definite results. 

Then some who do preach holiness seldom, or 
never, bear down on the experimental side of the 
question, but instead advance dry doctrinal treat- 
ises. The common people care little for theological 
definitions, but they want to know concerning the 
practical manifestations of the experience in their 
own lives. Doctrinal definitions are at times a 
necessity, but if they are not carefully worded 
and properly explained, they confuse more than 
enlighten. Theology and experience are two dif- 
ferent things, and very often the Holy Ghost ig- 
nores all our wise doctrinal theories and cuts 
cross lots to sanctify a soul. The old lady cried, 
"0 Lord, take the grumble and growl out of my 
heart." And the Lord did it 

Again, we would state that if dry theological 
definitions are unsatisfactory, on the other hand, 
dry and stereotyped experimental definitions are 
even more unsatisfactory and confusing. The 
thing that is meat for one is poison for another. 
To illustrate : It is stated, without any axplana- 
tion, that trifling and jesting are not compatible 



Holiness and the Human Element 15 

with the highest degree of grace. This is true 
— but, one person who has been devil-driven be- 
cause he smiles at something ludicrous, or be- 
cause some word has escaped that appears ludi- 
crous, is immediately cast down and almost 
thrown into despair; to this man the undefined 
truth is poison. On the other hand, the man who 
\s guilty of transgression along these lines should 
be warned by the same truth and caused to 
amend ; it is his food. 

Then we sometimes fear that there is a lack 
of earnest, conscientious study of this all-import- 
ant subject by the prospective teacher. Good 
books, such as, Wood's Perfect Love, Wesley's 
Christian Perfection and Fletcher's Christian 
Perfection are helpful, but, above all we would 
emphasize the Word of God, and that learning 
which comes alone through actual contact with 
the cleansing blood, diligent prayer, and personal 
observation of the things of the Spirit. God can 
teach you more in five minutes than you can get 
out of the best books written, after the most 
careful and arduous study. Then draw close to 
the Holy Ghost, the mighty Teacher, and learn of 
Him ; He will guide you into all truth. 

Even such great teachers as Wesley, Fletcher 
and Clarke do not always adequately define some 
of the most essential points of experience, and 
after the most diligent study we feel dissatisfied 
because of their indefiniteness. Just two exam- 
ples : Wesley says : 



16 Holiness and the Human Elemant 

"One commends me. Here is a temptation to 
pride. But instantly my soul is humbled before 
God. And I feel no pride ; of which I am as sure 
as that pride is not humility." 

Is this always the case? We think not, for if 
this humbling of the soul always followed as de- 
finitely as is here supposed there would be no real 
temptation to pride. We have heard three classes 
of testimonies: (1.) That the soul was imme- 
diately humbled, as Wesley says. (2.) That 
there was no conscious response to the sugges- 
tion, but the soul continued in quiet indifference. 
(3.) Some have testified to a great inward strug- 
gle before the enemy was conquered. Not a 
struggle against enemies in the soul, but against 
the pressure of the enemy from the outside. All 
these are consistent with the highest degree of 
grace. 

"A man strikes me. Here is a temptation to 
anger. But my heart overflows with love. And 
I feel no anger at all, of which I can be sure as 
that love and anger are not the same." 

Again we ask, Is this always true in practical 
life? To be sure there will be no anger or re- 
sentment, if the heart is clean, but there may be 
a feeling of grief or of physical suffering, that, 
for the moment, may be so prominent as to hide 
the natural overflowing of love for the offender. 

One great source of confusion is found in the ex : 
aggerated statements of teachers as to the power 
and character of the grace of entire sanctification. 



Holiness and the Human Element 17 

With an honest fear of destroying the foundation 
of the experience, men are led to make strong 
claims which neither they nor their hearers ever 
will fulfill. Then, again, these statements are 
made to stir people to action. The plain truth 
concerning holiness should be sufficient to move 
any honest soul to seeking, and anything which 
falls short or overreaches the truth is not the 
truth, no matter how great the pretentions. 



CHAPTER III. 
VARIOUS STATEMENTS. 

One person (and he is one of a large class) 
declares with great earnestness and conviction, 
"If you doubt your experience you have lost it 
already, and need to be at the altar." While we 
will concede that doubts generally have "legs to 
stand on," yet we will not concede that an honest 
doubt as to one's standing is a sure sign of for- 
feited grace. 

"To retain perfect purity," says James 
Caughey, "requires a continual acting of faith up- 
on the leading promises of the gospel * * * 
The temptations to doubt concerning one's purity 
are much more intricate and perplexing than 
those regarding the forgiveness of sins. The 
most holy and devoted persons are more frequent- 
ly compelled to approach the cleansing blood by 
faith, — for the evidence of purity than for 
that of pardon." Then he quotes from Lady 
Maxwell : "I have often acted faith for sanctifi- 
cation in the absence of all feeling, and it has al- 
ways diffused an indescribable sweetness through 
my soul." 

But some one asks, If a doubt concerning one's 
standing does not of necessity forfeit the experi- 
18 



Holiness and the Human Element 19 

ence, then what is the doubt that does? We an- 
swer, The condition the sanctified soul is in when 
he hesitates concerning his standing is that of a 
man surrounded by numerous and bloodthirsty 
enemies, hesitating as to which weapon to use, 
his knife, club, or gun ; or a mariner in a fog at- 
tempting to determine by compass the direction in 
which his ship is headed. Hesitancy as to person- 
al duty or standing is not distrust of God. May 
we illustrate the doubt that overcomes the soul? 
A sister testified that she made the discovery 
that she had lost the experience of holiness. In 
casting about for the reason for this loss she re- 
membered that some time before in the midst 
of sore pressure the enemy had suggested, God is 
not able to keep you. To this suggestion she gave 
assent, and her experience was gone. One will 
readily see that this was a distrust of God', and 
such distrust is inconsistent with a fully cleansed 
heart. 

Another person gives us to understand that ev- 
ery time we testify we must say something about 
sanctification, and that if we do not we will for- 
feit the grace. Many persons, because of such 
teachings, have been so tempted over a failure 
to say, "Saved and sanctified," that they have 
thrown away the grace already attained, and 
fainted by the way. 

A constant forced' repetition of the most pre- 
cious facts is apt to cause weariness and it may be 



20 Holiness and the Human Element 

discouragement. We once read of a woman who 
was impressed that she must under all circum- 
stances keep saying, "Praise the Lord." After 
weeks of this constant exercise, she grew discour- 
aged and lost out. 

We lay it down as a fact that there is a blessed 
variety in the personal leadings of the Holy Ghost, 
and that if we follow Him in our testimonies 
no two will be alike and no trite exjn*ession will 
mar the beauty of their originality or of their in- 
spiration. For one, the writer must confess that 
he has often during a love-feast been perfectly 
captivated by the testimonies, sparkling with 
originality and saturated with the Spirit. 

Another declares that if persons are back of 
the clearest light ever given, if they are not walk- 
ing unerringly in all the will of God, their grace 
is all gone, they are backslidden. If the persons 
who make this statement refer to actual sin 
against known light, there is no room to question 
their accuracy, but, strictly speaking, if this claim 
is true a man's grace is forfeited every time he 
fails to pray as much or as often as he should, 
every time he eats a piece of pie after he feels 
he has had enough, or every time he speaks an 
unnecessary word; for are not all these contrary 
to his highest light ? 

Again, how do people generally backslide, grad- 
ually or suddenly? The consensus of opinion is 
that it is a little neglect here, an unnecessary word 



Holiness and the Human Element 21 

there, a little self-indulgence in another place, un- 
til the strength is gradually gone, and then, when 
the crucial test comes, the soul is not able to stand. 
The first neglect is a backward step. Although 
none can tell how far this may proceed without 
actual backsliding, yet it is an error to place that 
point earlier than facts warrant, or on the con- 
trary, to presume on the longsuffering of the 
Lord. 

Another person says that if our hearts are 
clean, and we properly trust God, we will never 
reach the bottom of the flour barrel, and thug 
seems to teach that gain and godliness are par- 
allel. They attempt to prove their point by quot- 
ing David's words, "I have never seen the right- 
eous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." But 
one greater than David speaks of a certain beggar 
who was carried by the angels to Abraham's bos- 
om, after he had died full of sores and befriended 
only by dogs. If David never saw a saint in want, 
well and good; but Jesus Christ had, and I have 
also. 

But this is the actual experience of some, they 
have never known want, and because they have 
not they would blame those who have (like Job's 
friends) with lack of grace or a carelessness, that 
is little short of criminal, on financial lines. The 
writer once heard a minister take this stand in a 
camp meeting sermon, and then proceed to test- 
ify that all his temporal wants had been supplied, 



22 Holiness and the Human Element 

he had never scraped the bottom of the flour bar- 
rel, etc. After the service we approached a broth- 
er, well-beloved in the church, and ventured the 
statement that we could not give such a testimony. 
The good brother replied, "That man has not been 
where you have." That's just it. We once knew 
a brother, who, because of a lack of means, did 
without meat or butter for two years at a time ; 
he fed his family on corn meal, hominy and pota- 
toes (when he could get them,) wore patched 
clothes, and cut the legs off his trousers and turn- 
ed them around that the worn knees might not be 
so prominent, and all the while kept eternal vic- 
tory and saw souls saved, and was so ignor- 
ant he did not know that he was dishonoring 
God by enduring these things, as he fancied, for 
the glory of God! Job had just as much grace, 
and perhaps a little more, when he lost all as when 
he was surrounded by great riches. Neither 
riches nor poverty is godliness. 

Then there is the extreme divine healer, who 
says that if you do not get healed you are wrong. 
There is no possible answer, for these folks know ; 
but may we say that some of the best saints we 
have ever met were the most afflicted, and some 
of them even died. 

We would not be understood as disparaging the 
matter of divine healing, we simply refer to those 
who make a hobby of healing and unchristianize 
those who are sick. We lay down as a rule : The 



Holiness and the Human Element 23 

fact that a person has great faith for healing 
does not prove that he has either great grace or 
great love; and the fact that one is able to exer- 
cise little faith for healing does not prove that he 
has little love or grace. These things do not al- 
ways run parallel. Sickness is an inheritance of 
the human family, and, sooner or later, all will be 
overtaken. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DISCOURAGEMENT. 

Another favorite saying is that discouragement 
is inconsistent with holiness, and that if such a 
spirit overtakes you you do not have the experi- 
ence; and this is said without the least qualifica- 
tion or explanation. Before we could concede 
such a claim we would want to know several 
things, especially, What do you mean by discour- 
agement? It would be interesting to take a vote 
of the holiness preachers who read these lines and 
see how many can truly say that since they pro- 
fessed the experience of holiness they have never 
felt discouraged with their success in the work 
of the Lord and almost decided to quit. 

On the contrary we claim that heaviness and 
even awful depression are perfectly consistent 
with the highest degree of grace. These depres- 
sions may come from various sources as we shall 
soon see. 

Our vacillating feelings are a poor gage with 
which to measure our grace. They run all the 
way from the melancholy to the hilarious without 
the slightest movement of the will, and at times 
they refuse to be controlled. We weep broken- 
heartedly over the grave of our loved ones, and 
laugh joyously over the successes of our friends. 
The whole earth turns blue when our nerves are 
24 



Holiness and the Human Element 25 

depressed, and yellow when our liver or stomach 
is disordered, and it sparkles with sunshine and 
throbs with delight when our blood courses natur- 
ally and our nerves lose their strain. In which 
case have we the most grace. I do not know, but 
one thing is sure : He who keeps the victory in his 
soul in the midst of depressing circumstances and 
torturing pain is a conqueror, whether critical 
men write his name high or low. 

"There are some herbs, you know, whose virtue 
consists chiefly in their fragrance, but some of 
them are quite scentless and uninteresting till 
bruised ; then they shed their perfume all around. 
Thus it is with many a Christian. The fragrance 
of his piety is never diffused abroad until he is 
well bruised." — (Caughey). 

The feeling that is commonly called discour- 
agement may arise from various causes, physical, 
mental, and spiritual; within ourselves and from 
outside causes; it may come from our circum- 
stances, our health, our surroundings, our asso- 
ciates, or the enemy himself ; it may be consistent 
with a high degree of grace or it may be fatal 
to grace; and for any person to apply the same 
rule to every case is a failure to obey the command 
to rightly divide the word of truth. 

Then, besides, various persons have various 
ideas of what discouragement is. If definitions 
were asked the answer would range all the way 
from the feeling of heaviness that always accom- 
panies temptation to the melancholia of insanity. 



26 Holiness and the Human Element 

The Standard Dictionary defines "discourage" 
thus : "To damp or destroy the courage or depress 
the spirits of; lessen the self-confidence of; dis- 
pirit; dishearten; deter. To destroy or attempt 
to destroy the confidence in; try to bring into 
disfavor, etc." 

Let us examine a few of the experiences which 
are sometimes labeled "discouragement," and see 
how far they can be justly called carnal, or rather 
be sure signs of a carnal heart. 

1. Physical depression. Some persons who 
have always enjoyed uninterrupted health think 
it strange that any one should be depressed under 
physical disability. Then there is another class 
of persons (but it is not a very large class,) who 
declare that they feel spiritual exaltation andi en- 
joy constant communion when they are sick. But 
by far the greater number of persons testify that 
during seasons of bodily pain they feel depressed 
and downhearted; and this is especially true in di- 
seases of long continuance. Take the man who 
is naturally ambitious and active, steal away his 
power to labor and yet leave him with the un- 
bounded desire for accomplishment; now let his 
indisposition continue indefinitely and it is noth- 
ing short of a miracle if he should continually 
feel exalted in soul. We wanted to say that it 
would be a miracle even in the realm of miracu- 
lous grace — a supreme miracle. Such things are 
not only possible but they do occur ; but, common- 
ly, the victim must endure seasons of awful de- 



Holiness and the Human Element 27 

pression. We once knew a saintly old minister, 
superannuated (he has gone to glory now,) wTiose 
seasons of depression because of his lost physical 
powers were deep, and at times touching. Let 
those who will doubt the dear old man's salvation, 
but please excuse us. 

Even Wesley says : "Faith no more hinders the 
sinking of the spirits (as it is called) in hysteric 
illness than the rising of the pulse in fever." And 
may we say that judging by the common exper- 
ience of sanctified people, one is just as much a 
matter of grace as the other. A greater than 
Wesley speaks of Christians who were "cast down, 
but not destroyed." 

2. Mental and spiritual depression. A saint 
of God has spent months, it may be years, on a 
certain piece of work, feeling all the time that he 
was laboring to the glory of God; at the end of 
this time he sees, or fancies he sees, his labor all 
go for naught — there is a possibility that he may 
have to think twice and it may be pray three times 
before he can shout over the loss. Job said, "The 
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed 
be the name of the Lord;" but any person can 
easily read between the lines that this saying was 
wrung from a heart crushed with sorrow, and 
verging on despondency. A voice from the ash 
heaps of blasted hopes ; bitterly sorrowful indeed, 
but faithful in despair ! 

A faithful minister labors for months, perhaps 
the whole year, and sees but little, or nothing, ac- 



28 Holiness and the Human Element 

complished; the enemy has scaled the walls and 
entered the flock; the minister himself, although 
all his labors have been in love and with tearful 
eyes, is accused by the very persons his heart 
longs to bless; at conference a committee insists 
on his removal, and attempts to tarnish his repu- 
tation as a minister of the gospel. Of course, we 
understand that under such circumstances the per- 
secuted man of God should have grace enough 
to shout for joy and triumph as though nothing 
had happened! But do sanctified men always do 
it? 

We cannonize a Luther, a Wesley, a Roberts, 
a McCreery, who stood true to their convictions 
amid false accusations, but assist in crushing the 
man who dares to be as true as they ever were. 
My brethren, some of these men are serving on 
your own home charges, — and ye know them not. 
"Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish 
the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, If we 
had been in the days of our fathers, we would 
not have been partakers with them in the blood of 
the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto 
yourselves, that ye are the children of them which 
killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure 
of your fathers" (Matt. 23:29-32.) Who but the 
recording angel can tell the mental and spiritual 
anguish of these same righteous men? Yea, who 
but the Infinite can tell the mighty anguish of 
heart which tore away the life of the Son of God 
Himself — when He was so used ! 



CHAPTER V. 

DISCOURAGEMENT, CONTINUED. 

3. Causes of discouragement within ourselves. 
No person has such a full view of his own as- 
tonishing weakness as does the holy man. "Oh," 
says some one, "a holy man is not weak." Indeed, 
and who is this that is wiser than what is written? 
Paul says, "I was with you in weakness, and in 
fear, and in much trembling" (1 Cor. 2:3.) 
Again, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who 
is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glo- 
ry, I will glory in the things which concern mine 
infirmities" (2 Cor. 11:29, 30.) Again, "And 
he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: 
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my 
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest 
upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). And many other pas- 
sages on the same line. Paul felt that by his per- 
sonal weakness he was made strong in Christ, 
that he was compassed about with infirmities, and 
that he was set forth last, as it were, delivered 
unto death. Will we assist the three false friends 
of Job by adding accusation upon accusation be- 
cause he cried unto God from the sackcloth and 
ashes of his own personal weakness and suffer- 
ing? 

29 



30 Holiness and the Human Element 

I prayed that in a certain place God would give 
me one hundred souls. He answered my prayers. 
In another place I prayed just as earnestly and 
with just as much burden, but no fruit was forth- 
coming. My weakness ! my weakness ! Oh, that I 
had the ability of a Paul, the eloquence of an Apol- 
los, the strength of a Peter, the courage of a Dan- 
iel, the burden of a Jeremiah, the triumphant 
faith of an Isaiah, the power of a Moses, the spir- 
itual sweetness of a David, the thunderous power 
of a John or a James, yea, above all, if I had the 
divine compassion of my Master Himself, then, 
hear and be ashamed, earth! I could not, in 
some places, do many mighty works, — because 
of their unbelief! I conclude that my own weak- 
ness reproaches me, perhaps, when it should not, 
but this does not always hinder me from accusing 
myself of being a failure. Is not this the common 
experience of the God-fearing, God-bearing, bur- 
den-bearing servants of God? 

Oh, that I might plead with Moses, weep with 
Jeremiah, mourn with Isaiah, groan with Paul 
and go to Gethsemane with Jesus ; oh, that I might 
see the travail of my soul, and look upon new-born 
souls ; but are your hopes blasted and your pray- 
ers unanswered? Despair not, for, God has said 
it, "In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not." 
It may be that God writes success when men, and 
even yourself, write failure. 

Jeremy Taylor likens us to the fabled lamps 
in the tomb of Terentia which burned under- 



Holiness and the Human Element 31 

ground for many ages, but as soon as they were 
brought out and saw a brighter light, went out 
in darkness. Then he adds, "So long as we are 
in the retirements of sorrow, of want, of fear, 
of sickness, we are burning and shining lamps; 
but when God lifts us up from the gates of death, 
and carries us abroad into the open air, to con- 
verse with prosperity and temptations, we go out 
in darkness, and we can not be preserved in light 
and heat, but by still dwelling in the regions of 
sorrow." There is beauty and some truth in all 
this, but the danger is that such a life would pro- 
duce only a morbid and ghastly piety, and these 
bright lights would irradiate — "only a tomb." 
But God knows how to temper the sunshine and 
the rain. "He who made us, and who tutors us, 
alone knows what is the exact measure of light 
and shade, sun and cloud, frost and heat, which 
will best tend to mature those flowers which are 
the object of His celestial husbandry; and which, 
when transplanted into the paradise of God, are 
to bloom there forever in amaranthine loveliness" 
(Rogers.) 

Then, who is it that has reached a place in his 
religious experience where he is completely sat- 
isfied? He may be satisfied with the quality, and 
he is if his heart is cleansed, but the quantity is 
another question. Show us the man who has 
reached a place of complete satisfaction, and we 
will show you a man who has become stagnant 
in soul. The Psalmist declares that he will be sat- 



32 Holiness and the Human Element 

isfied when he awakes in the likeness of God. 
There is a possibility that present attainments 
when measured by the attainments of others, and 
the vast possibilities of grace, will seem so mear 
ger that there will be danger of the soul sinking 
in despair unless strenuous effort is immediately 
made for further advancement. Just a note here 
in passing : Do not attempt to gage your own ex- 
perience by the reported experiences of men 
whose lives have been written, such as Bram- 
well, Carvosso, Fletcher, etc. Why? Simply be- 
cause the biographer has often omitted the strug- 
gles and losses and inserted the victories and good 
things. They want to make a hero of their favor- 
ite. God only knows the struggles of soul through 
which these great men went before they gained 
the victories which are recorded. Are you, too, 
willing to struggle? Then you can be great — in 
God's sight, if not in man's. 

4. Causes of discouragement from without. 
This would include all such things as financial loss 
or want, persecution, vile accusations, the char- 
acter of our associates, and hundreds of things 
which we cannot understand and which persist 
in crowding themselves into our every-day life. 

Just one: financial want. Some may laugh at 
the man who groans under financial pressure ; per- 
haps such persons have felt such pressures, per- 
haps they have not. Wesley says, "0 want of 
bread! want of bread; who can tell what this 
means, unless he hath felt it himself? I am as- 



Holiness and the Human Element 33 

tonished it occasions no more heaviness even in 
them that believe !" May we add that it is com- 
paratively easy to endure such things one's self, 
but when your children are in want, and your com- 
panion is fading because of a lack of proper nour- 
ishment, then the heart will surely groan. That 
minister of the gospel, or layman either, is made 
of martyr stuff who can steadily pursue his way 
in the path of duty when others are plentifully 
supplied and his own are suffering from absolute 
necessities. Is he sinning when he looks at his 
strong right arm, and feels the pull towards secu- 
lar labor which would supply all his needs? But 
some one says, "If a man does God's will God will 
always supply all his needs." Such talk as that is 
an easy way out for the man who will not give of 
his cash to help support the gospel. It puts all 
the responsibility on the servant and lets the one 
who should give, and does not, go scot-free. There 
are two sides to the question. 

The writer in one place, after a trip around the 
circuit, drove his faithful horse into the barn for 
the night. There was not a fork of hay or a quart 
of grain to give him, and while Duke looked over 
toward ihe manger and pawed the floor, we looked 
into his big, kindly eyes and wept. "Old faithful 
fellow, you can have nothing to-night." But why 
should this poor beast go hungry? Let us not at- 
tempt to locate the blame, for that is not our 
question. The matter in hand is the depression 
which we naturally felt. If we did not yield to a 



34 Holiness and the Human Element 

complaining or fault-finding spirit, our tears were 
but the result of natural pity and did not show a 
corrupt heart. 

5. Some of God's most successful ministers are 
most beset with discouragement because they feel 
their labors are producing so little results. It is 
said that at one time Bishop Asbury had fully 
made up his mind that his work was a failure and 
that he would quit. In this frame of mind he 
slipped into a meeting, taking a seat unobserved 
near the door. During the testimony meeting a 
sister arose and stated that she owed her salvation 
to Bishop Asbury, giving time and particulars. 
When she was seated, the bishop arose, told of 
his temptation and decision, but declared that if 
he had been instrumental in the salvation of one 
soul he would continue to preach the gospel. Just 
such facts are the only things that keep some of 
the rest of us going. Are our hearts unclean be- 
cause we are thus depressed? Not necessarily. 

Some of the best of God's people have almost 
been driven to despair in their very dying mo- 
ments. A notable example of this is found in 
the annals of early Methodism. Thomas Walsh, 
a Methodist minister, was so holy and devoted 
that even Wesley stood in awe of him, but his 
biographer says that in his dying hour "his great 
soul lay thus, as it were, in ruins for some con- 
siderable time, and poured out many a heavy 
groan and speechless tear from an oppressed 
heart and dying body. He sadly bewailed the ab- 



Holiness and the Human Element 35 

sence of Him whose wanted presence had so often 
given him the victory over the manifold contradic- 
tions and troubles which he endured for His 
name's sake." The characters of neither good nor 
bad men can be surely inferred from their dying 
words, — it is the life that tells. 

The discouragement which blasts the soul : When 
I yield, in the midst of the pressures, to a dis- 
trustful spirit, when I become despondent con- 
cerning God's power, or willingness to help me; 
when I cease to rejoice in God in the midst of my 
sorrows, or to trust God in my pains ; when I am 
persecuted and forsaken, cast down and destroy- 
ed; then, and only then, is my spiritual strength 
stolen away, and I am become as other men. 

But any approach towards this point is, in that 
degree, detrimental to grace and a hindrance to 
success. No man can be his whole bigness for 
God when he is looking sadly at his weaknesses, 
or despondently viewing his temptations. The 
Word of God says, "In due season ye shall reap, 
if ye faint not." 



CHAPTER VI. 

ECSTATIC FEELINGS. 

Another ambiguous statement is that the sun is 
always shining (meaning ecstatic blessings) in 
the holy man's sky. We sing, 

"Here the sun is always shining' 

Here ithe sun is always (bright; 
'Tis no place for gloomy Christians to abide 

For my soul is filled with music, 

And my heart with great delight, 
And I'm living on the hallelujah side." 

There is no doubt that the Sun of Righteousness is 
always shining, and that the holy man always re- 
sides under His healing rays and is a constant par- 
taker of His beneficent influences, but it is also a 
fact that the holy man must pass through clouds. 
These clouds need not, and if the man keeps holy 
they will not succeed in intercepting the power of 
the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, yet they 
may temporarily intercept one's consciousness of 
these rays, and then the holy man sings, 

"I oft pass through tunnels that seem dark as night," 

and it is possible that for the time being he may 
lose sight of even the inner light. Job had such an 
experience, but he said, "When Thou hast tried 
me, I will come forth as gold." 

While Wesley strongly accuses Madam Guyon 
36 



Holiness and the Human Element 37 

for teaching that God at times withdraws the con- 
sciousness of His presence and favor even from 
the soul that is cleansed, and says some good 
things about God not playing bo-peep with His 
children, yet, on the other hand, he admits the 
possibility of strong temptations clouding, tem- 
porarily, the work of God. 

"But does not sanctification shine by its own 
light? And does not the new birth, too? Some- 
times it does ; and so does sanctification ; at others 
it does not. In the hour of temptation Satan 
clouds the work of God, and injects various doubts 
and reasonings, especially in those who have very 
weak or very strong understandings. At such 
times there is absolute need of that witness, with- 
out which the work of sanctification not only could 
not be discerned, but could no longer subsist." 

We once heard a holiness preacher make the 
statement at the head of this chapter in sub- 
stance, and then consume fifteen or twenty minutes 
in endeavoring to reconcile some of the Bible facts 
about trials, afflictions, heaviness, etc., with his 
unbiblical premise. We concluded that it was a 
hard job to split hairs close enough to bolster up a 
statement which contradicts both the Bible and 
every-day experience. While a man may always 
rejoice in the facts of redemption and personal 
participation in its merits, yet it is a question 
whether a person can be in heaviness through 
manifold temptations, and at the same time feel 
the ecstasy of joy that he does when the heaviness 



38 Holiness and the Human Element 

is removed. We once heard of a good brother who 
was subject to seasons of great temptation and 
pressure. After enduring for some time he would 
begin to shout. When asked why he shouted, he 
replied, "I am shouting to think how good I will 
feel when I get out of this." Some of you folks 
Who are so often overtaken by temptation might 
try that for a while. 

But some testify that it is an actual fact that 
never "a cloud does arise to darken their skies." 
This is good, and we rejoice with such persons 
with exceeding joy; but when these persons insist 
in making their experiences a standard by which 
to measure all others, and harshly accuse the ones 
who suffer either mental or spiritual depression 
while under a stress of temptation or physical 
disability, we wish to register our humble objec- 
tion. We have heard people loudly boast of their 
unclouded joys, and undisturbed serenity, re- 
proaching those who did not reach the same stand- 
ard ; and then we have seen these same persons in 
the furnace, and have decided — well, we are all 
human after all, even though we may be sancti- 
fied. It is not the amount of ecstasy which I en- 
joy that measures my grace, but the amount of vic- 
tory I have in the midst of trials. 

On the same line, some say that the sanctified, 
and some that even the justified, live a trium- 
phant life. The Bible says that God "always 
causes us to triumph in Christ" (1 Cor. 2 :14) . If 
the reader will turn to this passage and read the 



Holiness and the Human Element 39 

context, he will find that the triumph of which the 
apostle speaks is along two lines, personal soul vic- 
tory and success in preaching the gospel ; there is 
no suggestion of the continual mountain-top 
ecstasies which some would have us believe are in- 
separable from a pure heart. 

Doubtless, if one lives right, these soul thrills 
will come, and, perhaps, the nearer to God he lives 
the oftener they will come and the more glorious 
they will be ; but the hundreds, yea, thousands that 
have fallen by the way because they did not con- 
tinually feel the ecstatic triumphs that they were 
made to believe they should have, are witness to 
the error of such teaching and the need of a warn- 
ing voice. 

Do you have soul victory? Do you do God's bid- 
ding? If so you "triumph in Christ," no matter 
how heavy the burdens, or how T gloomy your 
earthly prospects. George Nitsch says, "We can 
not have heaven twice; and that is how a chain of 
anxiety and trouble is woven into our happiness; 
and that is the reason Christ's kisses are so 
scarce, and His visits so rare. But when we come 
together above the sun and the moon, then we will 
experience the full riches of His love, which He 
will pour out upon us to all eternity." 

This is soul triumph — to live a holy life. 

Again, we are told that there are no movements 
in the clean soul in response to temptation. A 
second thought would surely show the error of 
such a statement for, if the temptation is detect- 



40 Holiness and the Human Element 

ed and repelled there must of necessity be a move- 
ment of opposition. The response of righteous 
indignation is aroused at hearing the name of that 
God whom the soul adores blasphemed, or at the 
sight of vice and guilt outraging virtue and inno- 
cency. 

If, in place of saying there is no response to 
temptation, we should say there is no agreement 
with temptation, we are correct, provided we ex- 
cept those solicitations which are directed at the 
natural appetites and desires which remain in the 
nature of even the sanctified. The devil tried this 
latter method with Jesus when he suggested that 
Jesus turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. 
There was a desire for food, and doubtless a de- 
sire to which the suggestion could appeal, but 
since at that special time, the working of the mir- 
acle to satisfy the desire for food would have been 
obedience to the devil, Jesus rejected it imme- 
diately. Thus when our natural appetites are 
aroused and solicited grace detects the enemy's 
ruse and overcomes. No sin is committed and the 
heart remains pure. 



CHAPTER VII. 

RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION. 

We are often asked to explain righteous indig- 
nation, and to show the difference between this 
and what is commonly called anger or impatience. 
This is a difficult question, and we have looked in 
vain for some person who has drawn a satisfac- 
tory distinction. Some writers seem to approach 
an explanation, and then stop short, leaving us 
still in the dark. Most of them allow too much, 
and the only difference they see between righteous 
indignation and real, Simon-pure anger is in de- 
gree and not in quality. If any one has found a 
good definition and distinction it would be a bless- 
ing to bring it forward ; but we mistrust that the 
real answer can be known only by experience; it 
can not be expressed in words. Nevertheless we 
may be able to give some light. We will first 
bring forward a few authorities and then add 
some thoughts of our own. 

Definition. "Anger: Violent, vindictive passion 
or emotion aroused by injury or insult, real or 
imagined, and directed against the cause thereof ; 
sudden and strong displeasure ; wrath ; ire." "In- 
dignation : The state of being indignant ; a feel- 
ing involving anger mingled with contempt or dis- 
gust, aroused by injustice, meanness/' etc. 
(Standard Dictionary) . 

41 



42 Holiness and the Human Element 

"We may be angry and sin not ; but this disposi- 
tion may become sinful, and this in the highest 
degree. It is so when it is excessive, when it is 
rage, and makes us lose control of ourselves. It 
is so, and may become a vice, when it leads us to 
wish evil to those who have offended us. It is re- 
sentment when it prompts us to meet and repay 
evil by evil. It is vengeance when it impels us to 
crush those who have injured us. It is vindic- 
tiveness when it is seeking out ingeniously and 
laboriously means and instruments to give pain to 
those who have thwarted us. Already sin has 
entered." (McCosh, in "Motive Poivers"). 

"Anger is not evil per se. The mind is formed 
to be angry as well as love. Both are original sus- 
ceptibilities of our nature. If anger were in it- 
self sinful, how could God Himself be angry? 
How could He, who was separate from sin and 
sinners, have looked round upon men with anger? 
An essentially immoral character can not attach 
to it if it be the mere emotion of displeasure on 
the infliction of any evil upon us. Anger may be 
sinful, w T hen it arises too soon, without reflection, 
when the injury which awakens it is only appar- 
ent, and was designed to do good" (McClintock 
and Strong). 

"All anger is by no means sinful ; it was design- 
ed by the Author of our nature for self-defense ; 
nor is it altogether a selfish passion, since it is ex- 
cited by injuries offered to others as well as our- 
selves, and sometimes prompts us to reclaim of- 



Holiness and the Human Element 43 

fenders from sin and danger, but it becomes sinful 
when conceived upon trivial occasions or inade- 
quate provocations; when it breaks forth into 
outrageous actions; vents itself in reviling lan- 
guage, or is concealed in our thoughts to the de- 
gree of hatred" (Buck's Theological Dictionary). 

"If ye have a just occasion to be angry at any 
time, see that it be without sin: and therefore 
take heed of excess in your anger. If we would 
be angry, and sin not (says one), we must be 
angry at nothing but sin : and we should be more 
jealous for the glory of God than for any interest 
or reputation of our own. One great and common 
sin in anger is to suffer it to burn into wrath, and 
then to let it rest. * * * Though anger in itself 
is not sinful, yet there is the utmost danger of its 
becoming so, if it be not carefully watched, and 
speedily suppressed' (Henry, comment on Eph. 
1>:26). 

"Anger is not always sinful ; this passion being 
found in Him in whom was no sin. But then it 
must be noted that anger is not properly defined 
by philosophers, a desire of revenge, or causing 
grief to him who has provoked, or hath grieved 
us ; for this desire of revenge is always evil : and 
though our Savior was angry with the Pharisees 
for the hardness of their hearts; yet He had no 
desire to revenge this sin upon them, but had a 
great compassion for them" (Whitby). 

"It would be proper to express displeasure at 
what was wrong, on many occasions, in the man- 



44 Holiness and the Human Element 

agement of families, in reproving sin, and even 
in ordering their temporal concerns; so that all 
anger was not absolutely prohibited: yet let 
Christians be very circumspect and vigilant to re- 
strain that dangerous passion within the bounds 
of reason, meekness, piety, and charity ; not being 
angry without cause, or above cause, or in a proud, 
selfish, and peevish manner; not expressing their 
displeasure by reproaches, or the language of ve- 
hement indignation; or suffering it to settle into 
resentment and malice: but always endeavoring 
to subordinate the exercise of it to the glory of 
God, and the benefit of the offender himself, as 
well as that of others ; and to show stronger disap- 
probation of the sin committed against God, than 
of the injury done to themselves" (Scott, com- 
m,ent on Eph. J>:26) . 

These are samples, and the reader will see that 
while some of the writers quoted approach the 
verge of drawing a distinction between righteous 
and unrighteous indignation or anger, they 
all stop short of the mark, and only make the dif- 
ference reside in the degree and not in the charac- 
ter of the passion. But we believe that there is a 
vast difference in the character as well as the de- 
Igree. We will venture a few suggestions, only 
inklings of which we can find in any other place. 
The reader is at perfect liberty to either accept 
or reject what we have to say : 

1. There are two kinds of anger, carnal and 
holy. An example of the former is found in Cain 



Holiness and the Human Element 45 

when he slew his brother, and I fear that some of 
the writers quoted above had that sort in mind in 
their comments. There are various examples of 
the latter even in the life of Jesus : "Our Lord's 
anger was not only not sinful, but it was holy in- 
dignation, a perfectly right state of heart ; and the 
want of it would have been a sinful defect. It 
would show a want of filial respect and affection, 
for a son to hear, without emotion, his father's 
character unjustly aspersed. Would it not be a 
want of due reverence for God, to hear His name 
blasphemed, without feeling and expressing indig- 
nant disapprobation ?" (Scott, on Mark 3:5). 

2. Carnal anger is not necessarily aroused by 
a thing which possesses moral quality, and may 
be manifested on the most trivial occasions, as, 
when a man pounds his thumb, or because of a 
mosquito bite. Anger which is not sinful is al- 
ways manifested towards or on account of moral 
evil ; as, when your daughter or some other per- 
son's daughter is insulted by a vile man. 

3. Carnal anger springs from an unholy prin- 
ciple in the soul. Righteous indignation does not, 
and may be, and often is, a result of holiness it- 
self. 

4. Since carnal anger springs from an unholy 
principle in the soul, and since the ground work 
of sin is self (the sinful self -life, or carnal selfish- 
ness), then carnal anger is a selfish emotion, aris- 
ing from a feeling of personal injury, or the 
transgression of one's rights, or the crossing of 



46 Holiness and the Human Element 

one's plans or ideas, or a disturbance of his pleas- 
ures. This might be extended to refer to fancied 
or real injuries to others who are more or less 
connected with us or our plans. Righteous indig- 
nation is free from the principle of selfishness and 
is stirred by seeing others maliciously injured, or 
when God is insulted, or God's laws and the laws 
of righteousness are ignored or abused. 

5. Carnal anger is belittling, degrading, and 
altogether demoralizing. Righteous anger, since 
it refers primarily to the assistance of the weak 
and the overthrow of wrong, as well as the glory 
of God, is elevating and ennobling. 

6. The more sinful a man becomes, as a usual 
thing, the more terrible his angry passions are 
stirred. The more holy a saint of God becomes 
the more he hates sin. Like his Master he is an- 
gry at sin all the day long. 

So-called righteous indignation becomes sinful 
when it takes on a self -centered or selfish charac- 
ter. 

Adam Clarke seems to take this general view of 
the question : Commenting on Eph. 4 :26, he says, 
"Perhaps the sense is, Take heed that ye be not 
angry, lest ye sin; for it would be very difficult, 
even for an apostle himself, to be angry and not 
sin. If we consider anger as implying displeas- 
ure simply, then there are a multitude of cases 
in which a man may be innocently, yea, laudably 
angry; for he should be displeased with every- 
thing which is not for the glory of God and the 



Holiness and the Human Element 47 

good of mankind. But, in any other sense, I do 
not see how the words can be safely taken." 

This same thought is brought out in the expla- 
nation of the synonyms for ''anger" in the Stand- 
ard Dictionary: "Anger is sharp, sudden, and, 
like all violent passions, necessarily brief. * * * 
Anger is personal and usually selfish, aroused by 
real or supposed wrong to oneself. Indignation is 
impersonal and unselfish displeasure at unworthy 
acts, i. e., at wrong as wrong. Pure indignation 
is not followed by regret, and needs no repent- 
ance: it is also more self -controlled than anger. 
Anger is commonly a sin; indignation is often a 
duty." 

The reader will readily see that the above 
thoughts draw the line in the character of the pas- 
sions. One is carnal and is cast out in the arti- 
cle of holiness, the other is a necessary accom- 
paniment of holiness, and resides even in the 
character of God. 

One more thing : Some parents are fearful of 
correcting their children, lest they themselves 
should become angry, and as a consequence the 
children are softly allowed loose rein. Discipline 
is .necessary. We need policemen, judges and 
jails. A policeman, judge or jailer could be sanc- 
tified and yet uphold the requirements of the law. 
Some people have a soft idea of holiness. One 
person said that if a sanctified army would catch 
the kaiser they would hug him to death ! If some 
sanctified officers, then, would catch a highway- 



48 Holiness and the Human Element 

man, they would love and hug him, or a murderer, 
or an adulterer! No, sanctified men would see 
that such persons were put where there would 
be no possibility of them injuring the public, 
either in morals or person, and they could do it 
without the least vindictiveness, and to the glory 
of God and for the good of men. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FEELINGS. 

Again, we are informed that when a holy man 
is insulted his feelings are not stirred, and, the 
inference is, that holiness will leave the soul in a 
condition of almost stoical insensibility. On the 
contrary, we claim that the more holy the soul the 
more keenly an insult will be felt, and the more 
quickly a slight will be discerned. The very puri- 
ty and innocence of the character of Jesus Christ 
caused the affronts and abuse of the rabble to be 
all the more keenly felt, until His great heart 
melted, and He cried, "Father, forgive them, they 
know not what they do." 

While it is true that a holy person will feel a 
slight or an insult, yet it is also true that he will 
not under such circumstances yield to anger or 
even have the uprisings of impatience in his soul. 
Some persons thus yield and call it righteous in- 
dignation. Concerning anger Wesley says: 

"The same effect may be produced by giving 
place to anger, whatever the provocation or occa- 
sion may be ; yea, though it be colored over with 
the name of zeal for the truth, or for the glory of 
God. Indeed, all zeal which is any other than 
the flame of love, is 'earthly, animal, and devilish.' 
It is the flame of wrath. It is flat, sinful anger, 
49 



50 Holiness and the Human Element 

neither better nor worse. And nothing is a great- 
er enemy to the mild, gentle love of God than this. 
They never did, they never can, subsist together 
in the same breast." 

While these words of Wesley are sharp and to 
the point, and while they properly cover all the 
cases to which he refers, yet they do not cover all 
the question, as we have seen in a former article 
there is such a thing as righteous indignation, 
and this indignation is a holy principle and ex- 
isted in the spirit of the lowly Jesus ; the only 
question is to know where to draw the line, unless 
you have the experience of holiness, and then you 
will learn for yourself. To quote from Fletcher : 

" 'But if David only had an angry thought, he 
had still been a murderer in the sight of God.' Not 
so ; for there is a righteous anger, which is a vir- 
tue and not a sin ; or else how could Christ have 
'looked round about on the Pharisees with anger/ 
and continued sinless ?" 

We note again that the sensibilities of a holy 
soul are keenly alive to discern a slight from 
some person; we do not refer to carnal touchi- 
ness or unholy sensitiveness, but to a matter of 
spiritual discernment and the "feeling" which 
must of necessity accompany this knowledge. Mad- 
am Guyon declares she reached a place where one 
sort of food was as pleasing as another. This is 
easily explained by the fact that she had so stulti- 
fied her physical senses by Catholic austerities that 
she had either killed the natural taste, or was so 



Holiness and the Human Element 51 

hungry that anything tasted good. Our Protes- 
tant teachers are only one step behind her when 
they declare that all unpleasant spiritual sensa- 
tions are killed. 

Andrew Murray says: "Humility is perfect 
quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It 
is never to be fretted, or vexed, or irritated, or 
sore, or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, 
to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel 
nothing done against me." Let us be honest now ! 
Every one who has, beyond a conscientious hesi- 
tation, such an experience as that, please let it be 
known. Many will not take such a stand, and it 
is well they do not, for nearly every word is un- 
scriptural, and contrary to regenerated and sanc- 
tified human experience. You may have the vic- 
tory amid such circumstances, but Jesus Christ 
Himself was grieved when He came to His own, 
and His own received Him not. Pascal, that holy, 
keenly intelligent man of the times of the reform- 
ation, says: 

"The mind of this sovereign of the world is not 
so independent as not to be discomposed by the 
first tintamarre that may be made around him. 
It does not need the roar of artillery to hinder him 
from thinking ; the creaking of a vane or a pulley 
will answer the purpose. Be not surprised that 
he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing in his 
ears, — it is amply sufficient to render him incap- 
able of sound deliberation. If you wish him to 
discover truth, be pleased to chase away that in- 



52 Holiness and the Human Element 

sect who holds his reason in check, and troubles 
that mighty intellect which governs cities and 
kingdoms !" 

These stirrings of the human sensibilities by 
outward circumstances or the temptations of the 
devil, may be, at times, difficult to distinguish from 
the former stirrings of carnality. But a careful 
and prayerful analysis of internal conditions will 
reveal the ruth. 

When a person whose heart is still carnal is 
opposed or insulted a "feeling" of resentment, 
retaliation or even a desire for revenge may be 
present. Under the same circumstances a holy 
heart will feel none of these things. The "feel- 
ings" of a holy soul (and we use the word "feel- 
ings" for want of a better) under such circum- 
stances will be better expressed as grief, pity 
(not self-pity,) humiliation (and this, at times, 
to a painful degree,) and burden of soul. This 
sounds easy, but is not always so easy in practical 
experience. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; 
as chastened, and not killed; as cast down, and 
not destroyed. 

Again, certain persons are naturally so highly 
"sensitized" that the very spirit of even secret 
opposition has a tendency to depress. Such per- 
sons must be careful or they will confuse the sug- 
gestions of the devil, or imaginary occurrences as 
the opposition of those who are really their 
friends. This condition is often found in persons 
of an extremely nervous temperament, and we 



Holiness and the Human Element 53 

have known of some who suffered untold agonies, 
not because of touchiness or carnal sensitiveness, 
but because they feared they had done something 
unwittingly that offended a brother. You say, 
"Go and have a face to face talk with the broth- 
er." That sounds good, but we have also known 
of this being done and the one approached to sted- 
fastly deny any knowledge of effense and then 
pass on to the next neighbor and repeat the same 
charge. This is hypocrisy, you say. Indeed, but 
only in the second party and not in the one of 
whom we are speaking. 

If we might, we would add in a stage whisper, 
How much of this sort of hypocrisy can be found 
among professed holiness people? If it were not 
for concealing the truth we would fear to tell 
such things in Gath or to publish them in the 
streets of Ashkelon, lest the adversary would say, 
"I told you so." To be sure these persons are not 
holy, but sometimes they stand high in the coun- 
cils of the holy! Oh, that God would deliver us 
from this worse than human element ! 



CHAPTER IX. 
NERVES. 

This brings us to the question of nerves. But, 
some one says, ''If you have holiness you will not 
know you have any nerves." If I were Job I 
would say, ''Who knoweth not such things as 
these?" Such theories have been spun up and 
down, warped and woven, preached and argued, 
until they might be put to a long meter tune, 
but the song would only be sounding brass or 
tinkling cymbals, and holy men's nerves would 
continue to tingle, and peculiar sensations would 
still surge through their bodies which the Psalm- 
ist insists are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Let us examine the question from a common 
sense point of view and see what conclusions we 
can reach. But some person insists that grace 
is supernatural, and, hence not explainable by the 
rules of common sense. Possibly common sense 
can not thus explain grace (although we are not 
entirely willing to admit that, even in the realm 
of grace, God ignores the highest faculty of man, 
his intellect,) but nerves are not grace, and, to 
some extent, at least, are governed by natural 
laws. 

Nerves are spread throughout the bodies of 
all except the lowest form of animals. They are 
54 



Holiness and the Human Element 55 

like delicate electric wires scattered throughout 
the body, with the receiving and dispatching cen- 
ter located in the brain. Nerves are primarily- 
physical organs, and, hence, subject to disease, 
the same as other organs of the body; but their 
peculiar nature, which in some ways approaches 
the mental, their relation to both the brain and 
body, like connecting links between mind and mat- 
ter, makes them strange in their operations. It 
is a mistake to suppose that all so-called nervous 
people are controlled by some mental hallucina- 
tion. The nerves can become diseased (authori- 
ties differ widely on this subject,) and at such 
times they are subject to unpleasant sensations 
the same as are the muscles or other organs, and 
the fact is that the sensations of the muscles and 
other organs are dependent on the nervous sys- 
tem for their distress messages to the brain ; un- 
der such diseased conditions over these delicate 
wires are sent clicking, rasping, harrowing mes- 
sages from head to foot, producing all sorts and 
tones of feelings, ranging all the way from a de- 
pression that carries the whole being with it, to 
a jerky, hysterical mirth which is painful even 
to the one in whom it is manifested. In their 
extreme manifestation nervous diseases cause 
spasms, prostrations, hysterics, insomnia, etc. 

When the nerves are diseased or in any way 
disturbed, unpleasant feelings may be caused by 
various circumstances and things, mental, physic- 
al, external and internal, according to the peculiar 



56 Holiness and the Human Element 

make-up of the person concerned. It is a mistake, 
as is often done, to confuse nervousness with car- 
nality, and to accuse the person whose nerves are 
extremely sensitive with being carnal, or on the 
other hand to excuse the person who gives away 
to carnality by saying he is nervous. 

Thus far we have dealt almost entirely with 
the physico-mental manifestation of nerves, 
let us now see if we can join the thing up and 
discover what connection nerves and JioJiness 
have with each other, as that is the point at issue. 
In discussing this question we must often bring 
in the mental and physical, for they are really 
inseparable. 

We are living in a nervous age, and especially 
in a nervous country. We say Americans are full 
of "ginger," "pep," that they are "nervy," etc. 
These are only slang methods of expressing the 
extremely wrought up condition of the nerves of 
the average American citizen. He can not be 
still. When he starts a job he is not content until 
it is finished. If things do not move fast enough 
to suit him, he will try to invent some method 
to hurry matters along. Hurry, hurry, rush, rush, 
till there is no rest, and the head becomes sick 
with the mighty strain! Yes, holiness will, to 
some extent, calm this person down ; but if he be- 
comes too calm the devil will get ahead of him and 
when he reaches the vineyard he will find nothing 
but leaves; the devil will have plucked all the 
fruit. 



Holiness and the Human Element 57 

We have heard of some persons who could get 
there and back again, while some other person 
was making up his mind to go. Action, action, 
do, do, — we would say to this hair trigger person : 
Take time to wait on the Lord, be calm, and if you 
can not be as calm as some would have you, be as 
calm as you can, but keep clean. 

Irritability is another manifestation of nerves. 
The Standard Dictionary speaks of "irritable 
nerves." The writer once visited a physician to 
inquire about some ailment. Among other ques- 
tions the doctor asked if he felt irritable, to which 
he replied: "Well, doctor, I have just the same 
feelings as others do when they become irritable, 
but I have religion." The doctor replied, "Well 
there is something in that." And there is. In 
other words, the same rasping, disagreeable sen- 
sations chase each other up and down the nerves, 
but the spirit is steady. Thank God ! If we may 
be allowed to testify further: Several years ago 
we were in bed with nervous prostration. Dd 
you know what that is? In the community in 
which we lived there was a great deal of opposi- 
tion to the old-fashioned way. In the adjoining 
house was a young lady who despised the preach- 
ing of the cross and delighted in persecuting 
those who were saved. One day she came out in 
the back yard and set up a very disagreeable 
noise. Our nurse went out and asked her to please 
stop. But instead of obeying she yelled all the 
louder, saying, "I'll try his religion." When the 



58 Holiness and the Human Element 

nurse told us of her reply, we said, "She did not 
try our religion very much, but the noise was 
rather severe on these poor nerves." 

We have known people who would be horrified 
to acknowledge that they were ever "annoyed" 
by untoward circumstances, to become quite "an- 
noyed," or something akin to it, by a barking 
dog, a crawling bed bug, a buzzing fly, a cackling 
hen, or any other thing that disturbed their rest. 
It rasped over their nerves like sand paper, and 
set them so wild that rest was impossible. 

Why don't those persons in the next tent who 
talk so loudly and so harshly love their neighbor 
as themselves, and stop? Why does that cricket 
get under my bed and insist on singing his shrill 
song all night long? Oh, that the mother of that 
boisterous child would make him stop his ever- 
lasting clatter! I just begin to feel sleep stealing 
over me, when one of those noisy street cars 
comes slam-banging by the house and with every 
turn of the wheels it goes crashing through my 
screeching nerves ! 

Do persons who are thus annoyed have holi- 
ness ? They may or they may not, but one thing is 
sure, these things are not a test of experience. 
We have known of the lifting of a latch or the 
'breaking of a straw to almost throw a super-ner- 
vous person into spasms. Did you ever "enjoy" 
the toothache? Is it "delightful" to listen to that 
dry, long-winded preacher? Does it "please" 
you, Mr. Preacher, when your congregation sits 



Holiness and the Human Element 59 

listless or goes to sleep on your hands ? Of course 
you can sing, Praise God, etc., and keep saved 
when you are in a hurry and your horse or Ford 
balks, but do you really "enjoy" it? 

The stirring of the carnal in the form of anger 
or impatience, even under such circumstances, 
shows a lack of holiness, but the rasping of the 
nerves is a natural result that must inevitably 
follow when high-keyed nerves are rudely han- 
dled. The striking of a certain key of the piano 
will jar a lose window pane ; and the striking of 
certain pleasant or unpleasant chords will cause 
a vibration in the sensory nerves, but this vibra- 
tion has no more to do with your spiritual condi- 
tion than does the pain a dentist produces when 
he touches an exposed nerve in your tooth. Car- 
nality is in the soul, not in the nerves, be they 
diseased or healthy. 



CHAPTER X. 

NERVES, CONTINUED. 

Just a few words on how "nerves" will mani- 
fest themselves in the outward deportment. The 
answers to this question would be as numerous 
as the numberless individuals concerned and the 
infinite variety of circumstances with which they 
might come in contact. At times the nervous 
person may feel over-exuberant, and a few mo- 
ments after be prostrated. He may laugh or cry 
as the particular circumstances with which he is 
faced seems to demand, — or, rather, he will do one 
or the other without any seeming reason for so do- 
ing. One person declared that at times he must 
either laugh or cry, and wondered which would 
be the most consistent with holiness. We do not 
know, but, perhaps, it would be more pleasant to 
others if he would laugh. A few questions : 

How will or should I behave myself when my 
children are disobedient and boisterous? One 
things is sure, as far as possible, they should be 
made to obey. If soft means fail harsher means 
should be used. The tone of the voice may not al- 
ways be modulated to conform with the ideas of 
the critic, possibly it may not always be modulat- 
ed according to the strict requirements of the case. 
Wesley says, "But is it not proof, if he is sur- 
60 



Holiness and the Human Element 61 

prised or fluttered by a noise, a fall, or some sud- 
den danger, that he is not sanctified ?" Then he 
answers, "It is not; for one may start, tremble, 
change color, or be otherwise disordered in body, 
while the soul is calmly stayed on God, and re^ 
mains in perfect peace." Carnality may be reveal- 
ed by the modulation of the voice, and it may not ; 
some cases may demand severe, it may be harsh 
treatment, others more gentle, and it is inconsist- 
ent to say that the actions in each case will be the 
same. One will produce pleasure, the other pain. 
Paul says, "Therefore I write these things being 
absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, 
according to the power which the Lord hath given 
me to edification, and not to destruction" (2 Cor. 
13 :10.) See also verse 2 ; 1 Cor. 4 :21 ;2 Cor. 2 :3 ; 
12 :20 and Matt. 23. 

May we add as a foot note to the above: The 
softness, fawnishness, and delicacy of the average 
modern minister of the gospel, and even some in 
the holmes ranks, in their dealing with sin and 
sinners, is the curse of the church and a sure sign 
of her downfall. Oh, for sons of thunder who will 
fearlessly storm the gates of sin and worldliness, 
and not weakly yield and slobber their apologies 
when they are opposed and mistreated ! Take off 
your gloves, as our fathers did, and do not be 
afraid to defile your hands. Some men do not 
even make the devil mad ; everybody wants them ! 
We have denaturized Luke 6:26. 

How will I behave under trying circumstances? 



62 Holiness and the Human Element 

One answers, "You will always sing and shout, 
no matter how severe the trial." Perhaps you 
will, but, it may be, you will not. I have known 
a hard working, nervous, little woman, after toil- 
ing all the morning over the wash tub, and meet- 
ing various disagreeable circumstances,- to siit 
down and cry like a child when the clothes line 
broke and let the clothes in the mud. This was 
just one straw too much for those over-wrought 
nerves. Now you big, strong men, who never 
knew what a nerve is, stand back and call her 
foolish and accuse her of a lack of grace if you 
wish, but in so doing you are wounding one whom 
God would have you comfort. 

How will I behave when opposed? First and 
always, you will be free from a spirit of retalia- 
tion or revenge. After that the manifestations 
may be various. Whenever I see a man under 
pressure loudly declaring, "I don't care, let them 
do as they please," I must confess that it is hard 
to suppress a suspicion that that man needs 
grace. But some, under the strain of persecution, 
especially if these misunderstandings come from 
their brethren, have been known to collapse en- 
tirely, and some have even died as a result of the 
strain. "But," says one, "he should have thrown 
all his cares on the Lord," etc. To be sure, and 
doubtless in his soul he does; but his nerves are 
gone, and his power of physical resistance is a 
thing of the past. To those who would accuse 
such men it might be well to repeat the words 



Holiness and the Human Element 63 

of Job: "If your soul were in my soul's stead, I 
could heap up words against you, and shake mine 
head at you." 

Poor, tired, weary one; Jesus cares. Draw 
close to Him until you feel the pressure of His 
hands as He soothes your weary heart and brow. 
Amen. I am impressed that the following poem 
will help some weary one on his pilgrim journey : 

"God never would send you the darkness 
If He thought you could 'bear ffche light, 

But you would not cling to His guiding hand, 
If the way was always bright; 

And you would not care to walk by faith 
Could you always walk by sight. 

"Tis true He has many an anguish 

For your sorrowing heart to bear, 
And many a cruel thorn crown 

For your tired head to wear; 
He knows how few would reach heaven at all 

If pain did not guide them there. 

"So He sends the blinding darkness, 
And the furnace of sevenfold heat; 

Tis the only way, believe me, 
To keep you close to His feet; 

For 'tis always so easy to wander 
When our lives are glad and sweet. 

"Then nestle your hand in your Father's, 

And sing if you can, as you go. 
Your song may cheer some one behind you, 

Whose courage is sinking low; 
And, well, well if your lips do quiver 

God will love you better so." 



CHAPTER XI. 

FEAR. 

We were at one time approached by a young 
lady who said, "Between my home and the place of 
meeting there is an old, deserted factory on a 
dark and lonesome street. Some terrible things 
have occurred there. Am I wrong because I am 
afraid to pass that way at night ?" We replied, 
"You would be foolish to pass that way, go around 
and avoid danger." This brings us to the thought 
of fear, and how far it is consistent with holiness. 

Fear is defined as "an emotion excited by threat- 
ening evil,or impending pain, with the desire to es- 
cape." We are often told that self-preservation 
is the first law of nature, and we do know that 
there is in every man a deeply laid something, 
"instinct" is perhaps the best name for it, which 
causes him to wink involuntarily when some ob- 
ject approaches his eyes, or to dodge with light- 
ning rapidity when in danger of coming in con- 
tact with some "irresistible" body, or to inwardly 
shudder and shrink away at the thought of im- 
pending pain. If there were no such a thing as 
the law of self-preservation the race would soon 
become extinct, or rather it would never have 
continued. This "fear" is found in the lower an- 
imals as well as in man and is a safeguard against 
64 



Holiness and the Human Element 65 

injury. This fear is not cast out when an individ- 
ual is perfected in love. 

One man said, "I was on a porch with a number 
of other people when it began to fall. They all 
ran away quickly, but I didn't. I had perfect 
love." That is not perfect love, it is perfect fool- 
hardiness. It would have been just as sensible 
for Jesus to have cast Himself off the pinnacle of 
the temple. Why should He fear? He surely had 
perfect love. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord 
thy God." 

In the village of Cortland, Ohio, there is a 
large brick Methodist Church. The rear of the 
building, where the pulpit is located, is towards 
the west, and the auditorium is on the second 
floor. One Sunday morning when the people 
were gathered for preaching service there arose 
an awful storm. The wind, lightning and thun- 
der were so terrific that the people became uneasy 
and frightened. The minister was standing in the 
pulpit doing his best to encourage them, and said, 
"Do not be afraid. Before I was converted, I, too, 
was afraid of storms, but when I was saved I lost 
all that fear." At that moment the whole gable 
end of the church fell in and started for the pul- 
pit where the minister was standing. There was 
no time to consider, or to think of perfect love 
casting out fear; he jumped from the pulpit and 
ran down the aisle, shouting, "Come on, breth- 
ren." Some of the folks laughed at him — after 
it was over. If he had been swimming in the love 



66 Holiness and the Human Element 

of God, he would have done just as he did or he 
would have been a suicide. 

The writer was on the camp ground at Steu- 
benville, Ohio, when a cyclone struck it. Thirteen 
trees were blown down in the circle of tents, the 
tabernacle fell on the congregation, tents were 
blown about, people were pinned to the earth and 
one young lady was killed. These people were 
good, some of them professed, and doubtless had, 
the experience of holiness, but, notwithstanding 
this fact, some of them were on the verge of a 
nervous collapse, some of them did go under for a 
time, and others would leave the grounds as soon 
as a little wind arose. May the writer confess 
that he has never felt quite as easy in a tent since 
that time. If the wind blows he would sooner 
see how things are going on outside than be coop- 
ed up in his tent, and he would rather have a tent 
out in the open than be in danger from suspicious 
looking trees. Now if any person suspicions 
the state of the writer's experience, he has com- 
pany, for there are others who were there that 
eventful day that will testify to the same feelings. 
There are possibly some "nervous women" who 
^have never recovered from the shock. 

I do not know what form of neurosis a physician 
would call it, but I have heard a big man testify 
as follows : "When I was a small boy I had two 
older brothers who were always scaring me about 
ghosts and all sorts of spookish things. The im- 
pressions thus formed have never left me, and 



Holiness and the Human Element 67 

while I know better, and have no real fear(?) yet 
I can scarcely go out in the dark without a suspi- 
cion that there is some lurking bug-a-boo about. 
And this is true although I have enjoyed perfect 
love for a number of years." Remember the deep 
impressions of this man's childhood — and we are 
told that such impressions are never forgotten — 
and perhaps you will have an explanation of this 
phenomenon. 

Will a holy person fear a thunder storm? Some 
say, "No," others say, "Possibly." One thing 
that convinced Wesley of the genuineness of the 
religion of the Moravians was their fearlessness 
in the ocean storm. It may be this question should 
be studied with reference to the psychological or 
mental make-up of the individuals concerned. In 
some the sense of sublimity is so highly developed 
that they stand in awe before a mighty mountain, 
a waterfall, a rushing cyclone, or the crashing 
heavens. They are very near eternity. Combine 
this with a nervous dread of sudden developments, 
or unlooked-for occurrences (and sublimity and 
nervous susceptibility are very often comDlned 
in the individual,) and one will readily see why a 
chain of lightning or a crash of thunder might 
startle such a person, and this might develop into 
an almost hysterical dread. The law of self-pres- 
ervation will cause one to stand at attention 
when facing real or supposed danger. 

Before proceeding further may we state that 
there are two kinds of fear, as there are two 



68 Holiness and the Human Element 

kinds of love, natural and spiritual. We have 
never seen this distinction definitely drawn unless 
it is by inference in the passage from Adam 
Clarke: "Natural fear is a necessary accompani- 
ment of our mundane existence, and is not cast 
out by perfect love." It would be absurd to un- 
christianize a person because he fears a backbit- 
ing dog, a kicking mule, or a murderous man. Or 
because he trembles as he stands before a congre- 
gation, or shrinks from public notice. Bramwell 
says, "Our work as ministers of the gospel is of 
such importance that I frequently tremble ex- 
ceedingly before I go into the pulpit. Yea, I won- 
der how I ever dared to engage in such a work." 
This is the natural man trembling under the bur- 
den of the cross. Some of us often feel the same 
way! Fletcher says that perfect love inclines to 
timidity. 

On the other hand, spiritual fear, as we have 
called it, for want of a better name, is servile 
dread of the Almighty, slavish fear of man, carnal 
shrinking from showing one's colors, shrinking 
from doing one's duty because of the consequent 
ces, or any other form of fear that hinders a man 
from being his whole bigness for God and from 
standing in every place where brave men are 
needed. 

Then there is what the Bible calls the fear of 
the Lord. This fear, in a greater or lesser degree, 
exists in every saved or sanctified heart. But 
even this fear, as we will see in the quotation from 



Holiness and the Hitman Element 69 

Edwards below, is regulated by the fulness of the 
Spirit which one has attained. When the fear 
of the Lord becomes servile, it is inconsistent 
with sanctifying grace. The fear of the Lord 
which is not cast out by perfect love is filial and 
loving; servile fear is salutary and tends to lead 
the soul to God; filial fear is binding and tends 
to hold the soul in loving contact with the Lord. 
With awe and reverence the trusting soul pillows 
its head on the bosom of the Almighty, and says, 
"I love Thee for Thou hast loved me/' 

The feeling of natural fear will cause one to 
shun dangerous places or circumstances, such as 
burning buildings, falling walls, thin ice, pesti- 
lences, dark and dangerous alleys, dangerous com- 
munities. One may dread public notice, false ac- 
cusations or calumny. They may stand in awe 
before natural phenomena, such as earthquakes 
and storms, or before those whom they consider 
their superiors or those who are unduly critical; 
they may hesitate under the cross of an unusual 
burden, and cry, "If it be possible, let this cup 
pass," but grace will add, "Nevertheless, not my 
will, but Thine be done." 

Clarke says, "We are not to suppose that the 
love of God casts out every kind of fear from the 
soul; it only casts out that which has torment. 
1. A filial fear is consistent with the highest de- 
gree of love ; and even necessary to the preserva- 
tion of that grace. This is properly its guardian ; 
and, without this, love would soon degenerate 



70 Holiness and the Human Element 

into listlessness, or presumptive boldness. 2. Nor 
does it cast out that fear which is so necessary to 
the preservation of life; that fear which leads a 
man to flee from danger lest his life should be 
destroyed. 3. Nor does it cast out that fear which 
may be engendered by sudden alarm. All these 
are necessary to our well-being. But it destroys : 
1. The fear of want. 2. The fear of death. 3. 
The fear or terror of judgment. All these fears 
bring torment, and are inconsistent with perfect 
love." Thus far Clarke. 

With reference to the latter part of this quota- 
tion : As we have seen in a former article Wesley 
makes a strong point of the depression which very 
often accompanies want of bread. We submit 
that there is in the very nature of every man, 
possibly some would not call it fear, a shrinking 
from the article of death. The Lord has promised 
to deliver those who through fear of death are all 
their lifetime subject to bondage, and He does 
this when He takes away sin, the sting of death; 
but He still leaves the sanctified man with a spirit 
which loves life and shuns death. Holiness will 
not rob the judgment of its awfulness, but it will 
rob it of its dread, for the heart is right. Amen. 

Wesley and Clarke agree in the following state- 
ments from Clarke: "1. Profligates and worldly 
men in general, have neither the fear nor love of 
God. 

"2. Deeply awakened and distressed penitents 
have the fear or terror of God without His love. 



Holiness and the Human Element 71 

"3. Babes in Christ, or young converts, have 
often distressing fear mixed with their love. 

"4. Adult Christians have love without this 
fear; because fear hath torment, and they are 
ever happy, being filled with God. ,, 

Jonathan Edwards, in his treatise "On Relig- 
ious Affections," gives the following excellent de- 
scription of the alternations of fear and love: 

"There are no other principles which human 
nature is under the influence of that will ever 
make men conscientious but one of two, fear or 
love; and therefore, if one of these should not 
prevail as the other decays, God's people, when 
fallen into dead and formal frames, when love is 
asleep, would be lamentably exposed indeed; and 
therefore God has wisely ordained that these two 
opposite principles of love and fear should rise 
and fall like the two opposite scales of a balance ; 
when one rises, the other sinks. Love is the spirit 
of adoption, or the childlike principle; if that 
slumbers, men fall under fear, which is the spirit 
of bondage, of the servile principle; and so on the 
contrary. And if it be so that love, or the spirit 
of adoption, be carried to a great height, it quite 
drives away all fear, and gives full assurance; 
agreeable to that of the apostle, 1 Jno. 4:18, 
'There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts 
out fear.' These two opposite principles of lust 
and holy love bring hope and fear into the hearts 
of God's children in proportion as they prevail, 
that is, when left to their own natural influence, 



72 Holiness and the Human Element 

without something adventitious or accidental in- 
tervening, as the distemper of melancholy, doc- 
trinal ignorance, prejudices of education, wrong 
instruction, false principles, peculiar temptations, 
etc. Fear is cast out by the Spirit of God no 
other way than by the prevailing love; nor is it 
ever maintained by His Spirit but when love is 
asleep." 

After all real courage is not ignorance of dan- 
ger or heedlessness of consequences, but he is a 
courageous man, who, seeing the danger, in spite 
of trembling limbs or quaking heart, goes ahead 
and does his duty. The following poem by Almon 
Hensley, descriptive of the reveries of the mother 
of a soldier boy who did his duty even though he 
was afraid, beautifully expresses the thought. 

Leave me alone here, proudly, with my dead, 
Ye mothers of hrave sons adventurous; 

He who once prayed: "If it be possible 
[Let this cup pass" will arbitrate for us. 

Your iboy with iron nerves and careless smile 
Marched gaily by and dreamed of glory's goal; 

Mine had blanched cheek, straight mouth and close- 
gTipped hands, 
And prayed that somehow he might save his soul. 

I do not grudge your ribbon or your cross, 
The price of these my soldier, too, has paid; 

I hug a prouder knowledge to my heart, 
The mother of the boy who was afraid. 

He was a tender child, with nerves so keen 
They doubled pain and magnified the sad: 

He hated cruelty and things obscene 
And in all high and holy things was glad. 

And so he gave what others could not give, 
The one supremest sacrifice he made, 

A thing your brave hoy could not understand; 
He gave his all because he was afraid!" 



CHAPTER XII. 
WORRY. 

One of the favorite questions asked at holiness 
conventions is, "Is worry consistent with the ex- 
perience of holiness?" This question is extreme- 
ly ambiguous from the fact that it is hard to tell 
what is meant by the two words, "consistent" 
and "worry." As to the word "consistent:" 
In this place it may have either of two meanings. 
First, can worry and holiness "consist" together, 
i. e., "exist in conjunction, or stand together" 
(Standard Dictionary,) in the same person at the 
same time? Does a holy person ever worry? Or 
does he immediately forfeit his experience when 
he does worry ever so little? The other sense of 
the word may be, while a holy man may retain his 
experience even though he may worry yet is it 
"consistent" for him, being a holy man, to worry? 

From all our observation we would answer the 
former interpretation of the word in the affirma- 
tive, i. e., some holy men do sometimes worry 
some; and the latter interpretation in the nega- 
tive, for no holy man should worry, and a thing 
he should not do is, in some sense, inconsistent, 
no matter what he may or may not profess. But 
does every inconsistent act denote a lack of ex- 
perience? If it does then neither you nor I ever 
73 



74 Holiness and the Human Element 

saw a holy person. "Inconsistency" is a syno- 
nym for "humanity. " 

We now turn to the word "worry." Is worry 
always a carnal principle? Before we would an- 
swer such a question as this by a simple yes or no 
we would first demand a clear statement of the 
questioner's idea of what constitutes worry. Some 
men who have never professed religion are so 
happily constituted that they never worry, while 
some sanctified folks are so constituted that under 
certain circumstances they seem, at least, to wor- 
ry. From all this we would conclude that worry, 
or the disposition thereto, is in some sense a con- 
stitutional disorder. In such a case it is no more 
a sure sign of carnal conditions than is dyspepsia 
or liver complaint, and the fact is that the ten- 
dency to worry may be an outward manifestation 
of a bad stomach or liver and not of a bad heart. 

But as to the definition of "worry:" When us- 
ed as an intransitive verb it is defined, "To be 
uneasy in mind by reason of care or solicitude; 
be troubled or anxious; chafe; as, she always 
worries when he is absent" (Standard Diction- 
ary.) When used as a noun, "A state of perplex- 
ing care, anxiety, or annoyance; distracting or 
disturbing care or occasion of anxiety; vexation; 
fret; as, worry over a delayed letter; household 
worries; the worry of business" (Ibid.) 

If the reader will carefully analyze these defin- 
itions he will be surprised at the breadth of mean- 
ing which the word "worry" contains. Before 



Holiness and the Human Element 75 

we go any further we wish to give our own defini- 
tion of that "worry" which can not exist in con- 
nection with a clean heart. That spirit of chafing 
at divine providence which causes me to doubt 
God, or inwardly complain at His dealings with 
me, is carnal ; that spirit which meets the rebuffs 
and insults of sinners, or, it may be, the slights 
and misunderstandings of my brethren, with a 
complaining and resentful heart, is carnal; that 
spirit which meets circumstances with grumbling, 
or which becomes carnally fretful and peevish 
under physical disability, is carnal; and that 
spirit which meets the temptations of the devil 
with an inward complaint, which involves the in- 
tegrity and veracity of the Almighty, is carnal. 
Thus we see that carnal worry involves my integ- 
rity as a holy man, it disconnects me from God 
by my doubtfulness and complaints. 

But, beyond this, there may be a "worry" which 
comes from physical or mental conditions 
which none but God can truly diagnose; or from 
my surroundings and obligations, which none but 
myself can appreciate; or from the devil himself 
whose suggestions to me, for the time being, may 
be beyond my clouded apprehension, and they 
surely are beyond the comprehension of others; 
this "worry," if it must be called by that name, 
no more separates me from God than does my 
involuntary physical or mental conditions or my 
perplexing surroundings or temptations. Wesley 
says that the infirmities which necessarily flow 



76 Holiness and the Human Element 

from the corruptible state of body are not con- 
trary to love, nor, in the Scriptural sense, sin. 
Perhaps the best way to get at the subject is to 
analyze the above dictionary definitions. 

1. "To be uneasy in mind by reason of care 
or solicitude." That man who can truthfully say, 
"I never have a care," is, perhaps, to be congrat- 
ulated. But the great majority of mortals can 
not thus testify, and sometimes, in spite of our- 
selves, these cares heap up until our minds are 
almost distracted, and we cry, 

"I can not bear these burdens alone." 

Peter tells us to cast all our cares on the Lord, 
thus intimating that we have cares or we could 
not thus throw them on God. Paul groaned under 
the "care of all the churches;" the Lord cautions 
us to be watchful lest the "cares of this world" 
choke out the good work of life. "Solicitude" 
refers to one's earnest desire for the welfare of 
others, especially those who are entrusted to our 
care. The parent who lacks the proper solicitude 
for his child, and the minister who lacks a deep, 
divinely-given solicitude for his people, are in a 
bad state. In various ways and places Paul ex- 
pressed his solicitude for the church, and even 
Jesus wept over Jerusalem. We will leave it to 
the reader to decide whether this condition of care 
and solicitude will always leave the mind easy 
and serene. 

2. "To be troubled or anxious." The Psalm- 
ist declares that the Lord is his refuge and that 



Holiness and the Human Element 77 

He will hide him in time of trouble (Psa. 9 :9 ;27:- 
5;) and again he complains that God hides Him- 
self from him in his trouble (10:1.) God com- 
forts us in tribulation that we may in turn com- 
fort those who are in trouble (2 Cor. 1:4.) In 
Asia Paul was in such trouble that he was "press- 
ed out of measure" and "despaired even of life" 
(2. Cor. 1:8;) again, "I am troubled on every 
side" (2 Cor. 4:8; 7:5). His anxiety for the 
churches is seen in many places. See 2 'Cor. 2: 
1-5; 7: 12-15. There is no Stoicism here. Paul 
felt deeply, and, with the Master, often groaned 
in spirit. 

3. To chafe is to become irritated or sore in 
spirit. The horse chafes under the restraint of 
the harness. Bad sinners chafe under the re- 
straint of the law. Unsanctified Christians chafe 
because of the constant friction and war of good 
and bad principles in the soul. In the sense of 
"uneasiness" a holy man may chafe when a 
preacher is attempting to make a display of his 
own wisdom instead of the cross of Christ. He 
may chafe under the burden of a cross which the 
machinations of men hinder him of relieving 
himself of — he feels that he must exhort, but the 
"powers that be" put up another. The resultant 
feeling that the wrong thing has been done may 
not always be conquered without an effort, more 
or less intense, according to the weight of the dis- 
appointment. 

4. "A state of perplexing care, anxiety or 



78 Holiness and the Human Element 

annoyance." We are aware that Wesley makes 
freedom from "anxious care" a test of holiness, 
but we can not help wondering if Paul does. 
We quote from an article by Rev. F. D. Brooke. 
It will bear repeating. 

"We will never in this world reach an experi- 
ence where we do not feel life's heavy burdens, 
and will not be distressed by its many disappoint- 
ments ; and we will doubtless have occasion as we 
press our way toward the home of the saints to re- 
peat the sentiments of Saint Paul at times, Tor 
we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our 
trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were 
pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch 
that we despaired even life. * * * For when we 
came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we 
were troubled on every side; without were fight- 
ings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that 
comforteth those that are cast down, comforted 
us * * * ^ e are troubled on every side, yet not 
distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not 
destroyed/ 

* Think of a man raising a standard of life for 
mortal beings where there is no 'disappointment 
or trouble/ where we will 'expect nothing, wonder 
at nothing that is done to us, and feel nothing 
done against us!' Well, I have known of a few 
instances where men and women have reached 
such an experience in this world, but when they 
appeared in society they did not care whether they 



Holiness and the Human Element 79 

were naked or clothed, and their friends went 
weeping from the cemetery and left them alone, 
in their caskets and in their graves. All may ob- 
tain the same experience by doing as they did — 
DYING." 

5. "Distracting or disturbing care or occasion 
of anxiety." We read some beautiful stories about 
holy men who trusted God so implicitly when 
goods and money were all gone that their needs 
were supplied by miraculous intervention, and we 
should, and we do honor them for their shining 
examples of faith; but needs are not always sup- 
plied in that way as far as we can see, and the 
rule is so common that we hear very little of 
those other holy men who wept and prayed while 
they toiled and sweat ; who through toil and pain, 
want and weakness, the opposition of men and 
devils, worked their way to a place in God's hall 
of fame. Very few men can sit quietly and wait 
for ravens when they have a strong right arm. 

My friend, if you can truthfully say that, even 
though your family is sick, your provisions gone, 
your money used up, your means of support taken 
away, your own physical condition so low that 
you are unable to "put your hand to the plow;" 
I say, if you can truthfully say that even under 
such circumstances you never have an anxious 
care, you are made of better stuff than most mort- 
als. "But/' you say, I never ran against such a 
combination of circumstances." But some have, 
and, like Job, in the midst of their, for the time 



80 Holiness and the Human Element 

being, unalleviated sorrows, they have cried, 
"Though He slay me yet will I trust Him," What 
sort of spiritual timber are you made of? Such 
crushing calamities will tell. 

6. Vexation is the state of being annoyed or 
vexed. To be vexed, in the sense in which we here 
use it is to be "grieved, afflicted, troubled or dis- 
tressed." Jesus was grieved, Paul was afflicted, 
troubled and distressed. 

7. Frot is a petty word and refers to the rest- 
lessness and uneasiness which are manifested by 
some, and which are the result of nervousness, 
excitability or instability of disposition. It may 
be a constitutional indisposition and not necessar- 
ily carnal. Perhaps we can illustrate what we 
mean : Four thirty and Johnny should have been 
home from school half an hour ago. His mother 
has looked out the window, gone to the door, call- 
ed, gone to the gate and looked up the street; no 
Johnny. What can be the matter ? Johnny never 
stays away like this. "Here, Jim, go and see if 
you can find Johnny ; may be he has been run over 
by an automobile." Some mothers "worry" more 
if Johnny is gone half an hour than others do if 
he is out till nine o'clock. 

Now, we are fully aware that the various com- 
ponent parts of the above "dictionary definition" 
may be referred to a deep-laid and carnal prin- 
ciple, but this phase of the definition we ruled 
out in our preliminary definition, as well as in all 
our explanations. Thus, commonly speaking, to 



Holiness and the Human Element 81 

"chafe" is to become impatient under restraint; 
to "fret" is to fuss and fume impatiently when 
disappointed or under delay; to become "vexed" 
is to get angry, either in outward appearance or 
inwardly ; and thus through all the various shades 
of the definition. When sin, carnality, hatred of 
God, fretting at God's ways of dealing, or any 
other spirit that departs from God, does not enter 
into our manifested or inner dispositions our 
hearts are clean. 

To be sure we have heard all those wonderful 
things about God numbering the hairs of our 
heads, about the beautiful clothing of the grass of 
the field, about caring for the sparrows; and we 
have read that beautiful lesson of trust, "Take no 
thought for the morrow;" but men are human, 
and sometimes while some good men are walking 
"o'er life's tempestuous sea," like Peter they see 
the dashing waves and are likely to sink, and cry, 
"Lord, save, or I perish." Does the Lord rebuke 
them? Yes. But, oh, His rebukes are so gentle. 
"Wherefore didst thou doubt, ye of little faith." 
He does not, as He did with the cities of Judea, 
upbraid them for their unbelief, neither does He 
upbraid them for their lack of wisdom, but His 
reproofs are like ointment that melts the heart 
but does not break the head. 

Oh, that God would give us faith, me faith, 
in the midst of the surging troubles and heart- 
breaking anguish of this sin-cursed world to peer 
through the darkness and keep sl vision of my 



82 Holiness and the Human Element 

gentle, loving, forgiving Christ walking the heav- 
ing billows of my sorrows! I know if I can 
but touch His hand He will say to my heart, 
"Peace be still," and through all my being will 
descend a great calm. 

"Child of my love, lean hard, 

And let me feel the pressure of thy care, 

I know thy burden, child. I shaped it; 

Poised it in mine own hand; made no proportion 

In its weight to thine unaided strength. 

For even as I laid it on, I said, 

'I shall ibe near, and while she leans on me, 

This burden shall be mine, not hers: 

So shall I keep my child within the circling arms 

Of my own love/ Here lay it down, nor fear 

To impose it on a shoulder which upholds 

The government of worlds. Yet closer come: 

Thou art not near enough. I would embrace thy care; 

So I might feel my child reposing on my breast. 

Thou lovest me? I knew it. Doubt not then: 

But, loving me, lean hard." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

INFIRMITIES. 

We will quote one of Fletcher's definitions of 
infirmities which was given for the purpose of 
reconciling the doctrine of Christian perfection 
with human weakness: 

"An infirmity is a breach of Adam's paradisia- 
cal perfection, which our covenant God does not 
require of us now; and, evangelically speaking, a 
sin for a Christian is a breach of Christ's evangel- 
ical law of Christian perfection ; a perfection this, 
which God requires of all Christian believers. An 
infirmity, considering it with the error which it 
occasions, is consistent with pure love to God and 
man ; but a sin is inconsistent with that love : an 
infirmity is free from guile, and has its root in our 
animal frame; but a sin is attended with guile, 
and has its root in our moral frame, springing 
either from the habitual corruption of our heart, 
or from the momentary perversion of our temp- 
ers: an infirmity unavoidably results from our 
unhappy circumstances, and from the necessary 
infelicities of our present state; but a sin flows 
from the avoidable and perverse choice of our own 
will: an infirmity has its foundation in an invol- 
untary want of light and power; and a sin is a 
wilful abuse of the present light and power we 
83 



84 Holiness and the Human Element 

have. The one arises from involuntary ignorance 
and weakness, and is always attended with a good 
meaning, a meaning unmixed with any bad design 
or wicked prejudice; but the other has its source 
in voluntary perverseness and presumption, and 
is always attended with a meaning altogether bad ; 
or, at least, with a good meaning founded on 
wicked pre judges." 

Since the days of Augustine the error of Cal- 
vinism has been to confuse sin with innocent in- 
firmities or even with legitimate human tastes and 
dispositions. We are prepared to show that Aug- 
ustine was the first Christian imperfectionist. 
Fletcher calls him the father of "the rigid imper- 
fectionists ;" and the Augustinian method of class- 
ifying sin has been followed by imperfectionists 
since his day. We contend that such a classifica- 
tion has no warrant either in Scripture or human 
experience. As samples of his methods we note 
the following found in the "Confessions" of Au- 
gustine, Book X, beginning with the 30th chapter : 

1. Impure dreams are sign of a corrupt heart. 
2. He considers pleasure in the taking of food a 
sin, saying, "This much hast Thou (God) taught 
me, that I should bring myself to take food as a 
medicine." 3. He considers that love for music 
is a sin. 4. He considers that it is a sin that "the 
eyes delight in fair and varied forms, and bright 
pleasing colors." 5. He considers it a sin to 
watch a hound chase a rabbit, a lizard or a spider 
catching flies, because this is prompted by curios- 



Holiness and the Human Element 85 

ity, which, according to the theology of Augus- 
tine, is always evil. 

We answer: 1. Bad dreams are not always 
a proof of a bad heart any more than good dreams 
are of a good heart. 2. Our taste was given that 
our food might be pleasing, and we would pity 
the woman who had to cook for a man who took 
his food as medicine. 3. The love of music was 
born with us and in itself is as innocent as the 
faculty of hearing. 4. The delight in bright land- 
scapes and symmetrical forms is as natural as 
our faculty of sight. 5. To eliminate all such 
"curiosity" would be to cease to learn. 

God has promised to remove the moral curse, 
and after this is done the human subject is still 
compassed about by infirmities, and still retains 
his natural disposition and appetites. God re- 
moves our sins and the disposition to sin, but He 
only removes these infirmities in so far as their 
presence would show the existence of either actual 
or inbred sin ; and He only changes (possibly we 
should say, controls) our dispositions to such an 
extent that they may conform to the law of holi- 
ness; and while He takes away unholy appetites 
and desires, tearing them out of the soul root and 
branch, He also gives grace that the remaining 
natural desires may, as nearly as possible, be 
caused to occupy their proper position and not 
usurp control of the life, or hinder the full mani- 
festation of the Spirit of God. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PHYSICAL INFIRMITIES. 

Both Wesley and Fletcher class infirmities un- 
der three heads : those of the body, of the mind, 
and of the spirit. Owing to the complexity in the 
composition of body, mind and spirit, and the 
ever interlacing of the manifestations of their 
various movements, it is at times impossible to 
separate them, and to say with a surety, this is of 
the body, this of the mind, and this of the spirit. 
We will attempt to separate them only in a gen- 
eral way. 

/. Physical Infirmities. There would be very 
little need of teaching concerning physical weak- 
nesses were it not for the fact that it is some- 
times a difficult matter for some to understand 
the effect that these weaknesses may have on the 
spirit, and where legitimate effects end and sin- 
ful principles enter. Certain it is, that, under the 
present order of things, the Creator has so amal- 
gamated our entire being that all is interdepend- 
ent, and one part is strangely influenced by anoth- 
er. 

The physical man has its limitations, and these 

limitations are often painfully manifest. We will 

not be taken to task when we say that some things 

are physically impossible. Men can not flap their 

86 



Holiness and the Human Element 87 

arms and fly like birds; they can not swim like 
fish ; their voices are weak and they can not roar 
like lions; they can lift only so much, walk so 
fast, do so much work; they finally reach a place 
where their finiteness arises and says, "Hence- 
forth and no farther." 

The strongest man will wear out and must take 
rest. God has acknowledged this fact in the alter- 
nations of night and day, in setting apart one day 
in seven, and in frequent cautions to turn aside 
and rest awhile. In our scrap book we have a long 
poem about the preacher's vacation in which the 
writer very strongly depreciated such a thing as a 
preacher taking a vacation, since, as he says, the 
devil, saloon-keepers and others do not do so. 
This might be a good argument, if it was true, 
and if the physical man would never wear out, but 
it does, and in these modern days the fact is ac- 
knowledged that at some time during the year 
every workman should have a vacation. But when 
it comes to the work of the Lord some people are 
inclined to go on the principle of the man, who, 
when he heard some Christian workers speaking 
of being tired, said, "Work on, and die, and go to 
heaven." 

Some have wished and prayed for a stronger 
physique that they might do the work their hearts 
indite. They have looked at some big, muscular 
fellows, who do — nothing much — and almost en- 
vied them their physical powers. Notwithstand- 
ing the peculiar teachings of some, it still remains 



88 Holiness and the Human Element 

a fact that physical and spiritual strength do not 
always run parallel, and that though at times the 
outward may perish, yet the inward man may be 
renewed day by day. 

Some of God's saints must continually fight 
against harassing pains, some against sluggish- 
ness of body, some against distressing nerves, oth- 
ers are overtaken by uncontrollable weakness, and 
some gradually break down and fall into the 
grave. Who will venture to say that in spite of 
any or all of these physical ailments the soul will 
mount on eagle's wings, and feel exalted to the 
third heaven? But if even this soul continues 
stedfast in the faith, God's favor will not be with- 
drawn. Thus we learn that continual ecstatic 
joys are not essential to the favor of God. It is 
the true heart that counts. 

While we live in this world we will never be 
wholly free from physical desires and appetites. 
In themselves these desires and appetites are le- 
gitimate and are not a sign of depravity, but when 
men fell their natural appetites became depraved, 
and will never, in this life, reach such a state that 
their possessors will not be forced to deny them- 
selves daily, — to keep their bodies under. In oth- 
er words, while, in the article of holiness, moral 
depravity is removed, yet physical depravity re- 
mains, and a man must deny his inordinate appe- 
tites, tastes, desires, and preferences to such an 
extent as to keep his body under and his soul in 
the ascendency. Be careful when your bodily appe- 



Holiness and the Human Element 89 

tites, the lowest part of man, are getting control, 
you are in danger of becoming a cast away. 

(Note. The words depravity and inordinate, 
as used above in connection with the natural appe- 
tites, must be properly qualified, or they will lead 
to misunderstanding. ' 'Depravity " is used for 
want of a better word, and refers, not to sinful 
depravity, which can reside only in the spirit, but 
to the lack of that perfection which originally 
characterized the whole man, even his physical 
desires. The word "inordinate" as we have here 
used it does not refer to that condition in which 
the physical desires conquer the whole man, but 
simply to the fact that, even in the sanctified, cer- 
tain desires are so strong that there remains the 
necessity for self-denial.) 

In a holy man the natural desires may be warp- 
ed in the direction of one's own individual beset- 
ment; this is not actual sin, but is only a proof 
of physical depravity. Although God may, He does 
not usually, or it may be ever, so change a man's 
natural disposition as to make him entirely unlike 
his former self, but his former self is often so 
sanctified and made meet for the Master's use 
that it is scarcely recognizable, and the Lord says 
that old things are passed away and all things are 
become new. One man's natural besetment is 
lightness, he must practice sobriety; another's is 
melancholia, he must rejoice in the Lord ; one man 
is given to too much talk, he must study to be 
quiet ; another does not talk enough, he must learn 



90 Holiness and the Human Element 

to speak. We knew one man who had an inordi- 
nate desire for food; his efforts at self-control 
carried him into asceticism. We have heard of a 
horse getting scared at the water on one side of a 
bridge and jumping off into the water on the other 
side. 

When a person demands any form of recreation, 
association, food, pleasure or indulgence to make 
him happy he is leaving the track of self-denial 
and is putting some other thing in the place only 
God should occupy. This is one of the strongest 
arguments against the use of tobacco, opiates or 
any form of narcotics or stimulants ; they form a 
habit which steals one's happiness until gratified, 
even common sense is forgotten and God's pres- 
ence often obscured in the intense longing for the 
favorite indulgence. "The passions become eagle- 
eyed, the judgment blind." 

The proper limit of any gratification is one's 
own good, the good of others or the glory of God ; 
anything beyond this is allowed; allowed, not 
commanded, because of the weakness of the hu- 
man instrument. And when we say allowed we 
do not mean to teach that God ever winks at self- 
indulgence, but He can pardon because of the 
atonement. The spirit of the sanctified truly is 
willing, but the flesh of even this man is weak, 
and God forgives his unwitting trespasses be- 
cause of the blood and judges him by Christ's 
evangelical law of liberty. This is what we mean 
when we pray, "Forgive us our trespasses 



Holiness and the Human Element 91 

('debts' or 'sins') as we forgive those who tres- 
pass against us." Not actual transgressions or 
inherent sin (this latter can not be forgiven,) but 
inadvertent trespasses against the infinitely pure 
law of God which allows of no mistakes, caused 
by human shortsightedness and lack of under- 
standing. 

"Except a man deny himself," refers to that 
thing which would be pleasing to the natural man, 
but the doing of which would be unpleasing to 
God and detrimental to the soul's best good. Ex- 
cept a man, when occasion arises, put away pleas- 
ing food, pleasing associations, pleasant occupa- 
tions, the possibility of gain, desirable position; 
except he accept, when the occasion arises, un- 
pleasant things, annoying circumstances, scant 
supplies, hissing and scorn, the track of tribula- 
tion, he can not be Christ's disciple. If a man 
would gain his life, he must consent to lose it. 
All this holiness will do for a man even though 
the flesh is weak. By this ye shall know whether 
ye are Christ's disciple, if ye love Him more than 
these. 

Concerning the physical infirmities of Christ 
and the corresponding infirmities of the holy, 
Fletcher writes: 

"Was not our Lord Himself imperfect? Did 
His bodily strength never fail in agonizing pray- 
er, or in intense labor? Did His animal spirits 
ever move with the same sprightliness ? Do we 
not read of His sleeping in the ship when His dis- 



92 Holi?iess and the Human Element 

ciples wrestled with the tempestuous sea? Did 
He not fulfil the precept, 'Be ye angry, and sin 
not'? Had He not the troublesome sensation of 
grief at Lazarus' grave, of hunger in the wilder- 
ness, of weariness, at Jacob's well, and of thirst, 
upon the cross? If He was 'made in the likeness 
of sinful flesh/ and 'tempted in all things as we 
are/ is it not highly probable that He was not an 
utter stranger to the natural appetites and uneasy 
sensations which are incident to flesh and blood? 
Is it a sin to feel them? Is it not rather a virtue 
totally to deny them, or not to satisfy them out of 
the line of duty, or not to indulge them in an ex- 
cessive manner on that line? Again: Did not 
His holy flesh testify a natural, innocent abhor- 
rence to suffering? Did not His sacred flesh faint 
in the garden ? Were not His spirits so depressed 
that He stood in need of the strengthening assist- 
ance of an angel? Did He do all the good He 
would? To suppose that He wished not the con- 
version of His friends and brethren is to suppose 
Him totally devoid of natural affection : but were 
they all converted? Did you ever read, 'Neither 
did His brethren believe in Him/ and, 'His friends 
went out to lay hold on Him ; for they said, He is 
beside Himself?' To conclude: Did He not acci- 
dentally stir up the evil He would not when He 
gave occasion to the envy of the Pharisees, scorn 
of Herod, the fears of Pilate, the rage Of the Jew- 
ish mob? And when He prayed that the bitter 
cup might pass from Him, if it were possible, did 



Holiness and the Human Element 93 

He not manifest a resigned desire to escape pain 
and shame? If every such desire is indwelling 
sin, or the flesh sinfully lusting against the spirit, 
Did He not go through the sinful conflict as well 
as those whom we call perfect men in Christ, and 
consequently, did He not fall at once from media- 
torial, Adamic, and Christian perfection ; indwell- 
ing sin being equally inconsistent with all these 
perfections ? What true believer does not shudder 
at the bare supposition? And if our sinless Lord 
felt the weakness of the flesh harmlessly lusting 
against the willingness of the spirit, according to 
His own doctrine, 'The spirit indeed is willing, but 
the flesh is weak/ is it not evident that the con- 
flict we speak of, — if the spirit maintains its su- 
perior, victorious lusting against the flesh, and by 
that means steadily keeps the flesh in its proper 
place — is it not evident, I say, that this conflict is 
no more inconsistent with Christian perfection 
than the suffering, agonizing, fainting, crying, and 
dying, which were the lot of our sinless, perfect 
Savior to the last?" — Last Check to Antinomian- 
ism, Sec. VII. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MENTAL INFIRMITIES. 

//. Mental Infirmities and Varying Disposi- 
tions of Holiness Professors. It is to be doubted 
if God ever made two persons exactly alike, either 
in appearance or mental characteristics. These 
differences often lie in the varying strength of our 
good points or the extent of our weaknesses. In 
what ways do men differ, and how far are these 
differences consistent with holiness of heart? 
This method of examining the strength and weak- 
ness of holy men is different from the course us- 
ually pursued in such investigations. But possi- 
bly by putting the truth in this new w^ay it may 
help to a clear understanding of conditions. 

1. Differences in personality. Personality is 
denned thus: "The attributes, taken collectively, 
that make up the character and nature of an indi- 
vidual; that which distinguishes and character- 
izes a person." 

Modern society demands that men behave them- 
selves by set rules, called the rules of etiquette. 
By following these rules the real man is often 
so hidden under their set forms that his genuine 
personality seldom comes to the surface. There 
is danger that such practices will make a person 
artificial to the extent of hypocrisy. 

In their methods of administering truth preach- 
94 



Holines and the Human Element 95 

ers so often cut after the same pattern that one 
who leaves the rut and follows the course God 
has marked out for him is considered a curiosity. 
By following his God-given methods, or possibly 
we should say, the methods for which God ha3 
naturally fitted him, his life becomes so Spirit- 
anointed that it is a rebuke to those who possess 
nothing original. 

A sanctified personality enables a man to fill 
the special place for which the wisdom of the all- 
wise Creator has fitted him, and when he consents 
to submerge his own personality in the generali- 
ties of social, religious or denominational eti- 
quette he has consented to his own elimination 
as a factor in God's hands for bringing special 
things to pass, and to the extent he thus loses his 
personality he loses his power t ) do all the good 
he should do, and this all comes as a result of the 
fact that he has gotten out of God's order, — and 
become common. 

Men speak of pleasing and unpleasing, of strong 
and weak personalities. These discriminations 
only express the view-point of the individual who 
sits as a judge, and are not a certain criterion, 
neither are they of necessity a correct estimate 
of a man as God measures him. The strong man 
in God's sight may be the despised of earth, and 
the weak man in God's sight may be the world's 
hero. The wise man says that "he that ruleth 
his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." 
The man who takes a city is earth's hero, — the 



96 Holiness and the Human Element 

man who rules his spirit is heaven's hero. Pride 
and humility, haughtiness and lowliness ! 

The manifestations of one's personal charac- 
teristics are consistent with holiness in so far 
as they are governed by the will of God, and most 
tend to the edification of those around. In every 
place where we learn that these ends are not gain- 
ed we should seek to correct our methods, and, as 
far as possible, conform them to the divine plan 
for us. That even in the holy man the manifesta- 
tions of strictly personal characteristics must at 
times be modified arises from the degenerating 
effects of forgiven and cleansed sin, which effects 
still remain in the very make-up of our beings. 
No man should be condemned for his unconscious 
and involuntary personality, but he should be 
taught to so govern his life as to please even his 
neighbor as far as possible to edification and the 
glory of God. No man, and no set of men, have a 
right to condemn any other man because he is 
himiself, if he is sanctified and sincerely seeks the 
glory of God. 

"There's so much goad in the most of us, 
And so much bad in the best of us, 
That it hardly behooves any of us 
To talk about the rest of us." 

2. Differences in individuality. The individ- 
uality of a man is the sum total of those charac- 
teristics which distinguish him from every other 
man, not simply as a separate person, but as mark- 
ing him as different from other men. Some peo- 



Holiness and the Human Element 97 

pie have a very marked individuality, while others 
are scarcely distinguishable from the crowd 
around them. God gives every man naturally a 
certain degree of individuality, but most men 
yield themselves so thoroughly to the leading of 
others that they lose about all personal initiative 
and become so near nothing, that, when they are 
gone, the best we can do is to say with Cowper 
that they have eaten up all their bread. 

It is men of strongly manifest individuality 
who have moved the world and the church. As 
examples of the former we note Napoleon, Wash- 
ington and Lincoln, and of the latter Paul, Luther 
and Wesley. 

The weak points in a strong man are more 
liable to be copied than the strong ones, and here 
is a great danger. We have known of men who, 
by the exercise of their strong personality, have 
held others to the rigid line of their own ideas, 
with the unhappy result that when they withdrew 
their restraining hand their followers obeyed 
them no more and went their own way. The 
weakness in all this lies in the fact that the leader 
made the mistake of thinking that he must govern 
and give light by the pressure of his own spirit, 
and thus assumed prerogatives which belong to 
the Spirit of God alone. Those who are converted 
and held by the influence of the presence of the 
pastor or evangelist are very apt to be only wood, 
hay and stubble, while those who are kept by the 
power of God are gold, silver and precious stones. 



98 Holiness and the Human Element 

God wants men of strong individuality, but He 
wants them consecrated to Him. But here is the 
fly in the ointment: it is impossible to find a 
strong man without a weakness, and while some 
follow him blindly, faults and all, ethers make the 
mistake of making him an offender for a word, 
and forget his strength. These last set to throw- 
ing stones, and forget that they themselves live in 
glass houses. Let him that is without fault cast 
the first stone. 

"What are another's faults to me? 

I'm not a vulture's bill 
To pick at every flaw I see 

And make it wider still; 
It's enough for me to know 

I've follies of my own, 
And on myself that care bestow, 

And let my friends alone." 

3. Oddities and Eccentricities of Holiness Pro- 
fessors. There is not a more original lot of peo- 
ple on the face of the earth than those who are en- 
tirely sanctified. When men throw off the re- 
straint of custom their own native characteristics 
come to the surface, and people call them odd and 
eccentric. "Surely," they say, "this is a peculiar 
people." God can use a man the way He made 
him to much better advantage than when his own 
individualism — personal independence of action — 
or eccentricities, if you wish to call them by that 
name, are buried under a flood of generalities. 

Perhaps it is true that every man has some od- 
dity or eccentricity in his make-up. He may not 



Holiness and the Human Element 99 

know it, but his friends and his enemies do, and 
if they would be real honest they could tell him 
things that would surprise him. These peculiar- 
ities are so many proofs that we live in earthen 
vessels, and that any power we may have is of 
God and not of ourselves. Some would reject a 
man because of some real or fancied peculiarity. 
What a mistake ! Why throw away the whole pot 
of beans because it happens that one black one has 
strayed in? And listen, friendly critic, — there 
are a half dozen black beans in your mess, and the 
only reason why you stand is because you have 
been able to conceal them. 

But who says that oddities and eccentricities are 
always wrong, and that in that proportion a man 
should be rejected? The Methodist Episcopal 
Church fought Lorenzo Dow all his life, but while 
they fought he plowed ahead and doubtless saw 
more good done than any of his miserable critics. 
Where can you find a more eccentric man than 
Peter Cartwright, but these very peculiarities 
made his spiritual successes all the more promi- 
nent. We have known of men, who, because of, or 
in spite of, their peculiarities (we have scarce- 
ly decided which) , have done more good than any 
of those who are contented to be "average men," 
and take to riding the see-saw of public opinion 
and established custom. 

Some men may not be Samsons, but they are 
at least Samson's foxes, and one thing is sure: 
wherever they go they will set fire to the standing 



100 Holiness and the Human Element 

corn of the Philistines and rout the devil and the 
old man in whatever hole they may be hiding; 
such men will slay more with the jawbone of an 
ass than some men will with all the regulation ar- 
tillery that can be brought around. 

Do not get discouraged and give up because 
these "average men" are all the while finding 
fault with you, or because you can not do things 
in the average way. When General Patterson 
suggested that he would seek redress for un- 
merited censure which he had received, Lincoln 
told him that he need not expect to escape abuse 
as long as he was of any importance or value to 
the community. How true of the Christian ! So 
live for God, keep your special peculiarity sancti- 
fied, and go ahead ; and when you get to heaven it 
may be that you can have a place with "weeping" 
Jeremiah, "singing" David, "enrapt" Isaiah, 
"burdened" Moses, "zealous" Phineas, "shut in" 
Noah, "sojourning" Abraham, "praying" Hannah, 
"dancing" Deborah, "denunciating" Amos, 
"groaning" Paul, "impulsive" Peter, or "ecstatic" 
John. Who knows? 

4. Temperamental differences and weakness- 
es in holiness professors. Some one said that 
when God made a saint He threw the mold away 
and never made another just like him. Holiness 
people differ temperamentally just as much as 
they do in other ways. Some are quick, others 
slow; some are impulsive, others always look be- 
fore they leap ; some are open hearted, while oth- 



Holiness and the Human Element 101 

ers are more secluded; some are precise, while 
others are more inclined to be loose ; some are very- 
particular about their appearance, while others 
care very little for such useless details (as they 
call them), and so on to the end. 

It would be hard to find two persons who were 
perfectly compatible temperamentally. Wesley 
tells of a mistress and maid, who, before they 
were sanctified, were a great trial to each other. 
When they both obtained this blessing he suggest- 
ed that doubtless their differences were a thing of 
the past, but, to his surprise, he found that the 
same incompatibility remained. 

Holiness does not change our natural disposi- 
tions or turn of mind, it takes us as we are, sanc- 
tifies us, and makes the best possible use of the 
material on hand. A philosophic mind will still 
reason and explore; an incredulous mind must 
still be shown, and will still find difficulty in ac- 
cepting undemonstrated statements, while the 
credulous mind can easily be led and needs but 
very little demonstration ; and the dogmatic mind 
will still state and define. The difference after 
being sanctified lies in the fact that evil princi- 
ples are eliminated, and the renewed mind, which 
once served the devil the world and self, now 
serves God. 

Because of an error in a watch a train is missed. 
An impulsive man is apt to say, "I'll get rid of 
this watch, I can't afford to be fooled this way," 
but the quiet, reasoning man will sit down, correct 



102 Holiness and the Human Element 

the watch, get it fixed if necessary, and — forget 
it. Both may have the experience of holiness ; the 
difference is in their dispositions. 

Two young men, both sanctified, are looking for 
a life partner. One is attracted by a sprightly, 
vivacious lassie whom he makes his own, while the 
other finds an unassuming, old-fashioned maid 
and immediately gives her his heart. No wrong 
is done, their temperaments differed and as a 
consequence they were suited by the different tem- 
peraments in a companion. 

But sometimes we are thrown with persons 
whose temperaments are not to our liking — what 
then? Bear and forbear. The man who can not 
look beyond his own likes and dislikes and see the 
good in those with whom he is not in agreement 
temperamentally has not passed very far along 
the road of perfect love, or even of brotherly- 
kindness. The man who is still unable to feel 
kindly toward another who is not temperamental- 
ly to his liking, or who because of this lack of 
agreement will use his influence, great or small, 
for the undoing of the one with whom he is tried, 
needs a new baptism of regenerating grace. Holi- 
ness will cover a multitude of sins, and this in- 
cludes a multitude of incompatibilities in the dis- 
positions or actions of others. This is a good way 
to measure your love : Have you love one for an- 
other? if so your love will cover a multitude of 
sins and infirmities in your brother, and your own 
preferences will not be so prominent. 



Holiness and the Human Element 103 

One says, "I am of Paul. I like his wonderful 
philosophic mind, and his deep, searching truths." 
Another says, "I am of Apollos. I just love to lis- 
ten to his oratorical flights, and to mark his well- 
rounded sentences and fine figures of speech." An- 
other says, "I am of Peter. He always keeps you 
guessing, and just won't let you go to sleep." An- 
other, "I am of James. I tell you he hews to the 
line, and besides he gives us all something to do." 
And still another, "I am of John. He is so kind 
and full of love." And, right here — in these dif- 
ferences of opinion — a rent is caused in the 
church. While preferences are natural, yet we 
can keep from making our preferences so promi- 
nent that we not only ruin the church of God, but 
forfeit our own experiences in the bargain. 

5. Differences in education and environment. 
Most of us, perhaps all of us, have been trained in 
the wrong school. We are aware that some may 
resent this statement, but such resentment only 
helps to bear out the truthfulness of our premise. 
One man was reared in so-called high society. 
Naturally this man expects high positions and 
honor. Another man was reared in poverty. Gen- 
erally he expects nothing and is often even too 
content to let the other man rule. This is an in- 
cipient autocracy presided over by the one who 
considers himself superior. 

The man who leads is not always the best man. 
Such a doctrine would be an accommodation of 
the evolutionary rule of the survival of the fittest. 



104 Holiness and the Human Element 

There are various circumstances which place men 
in the lead. 

(1) Real worth. This is the only legitimate 
method. (2) Educational advantages. An edu- 
cated man may be a good ruler or he may not. (3) 
Financial advantage. There is still too much ca- 
tering to cash. The gold ring still gets the best 
seat. The president of a certain state Sunday- 
school association is a millionaire. Why does he 
occupy that position ? Simply because of his cash. 
His predecessor was also a millionaire. (4) Acci- 
dent of birth or circumstances. Some men are 
"born to be kings," some "chance" to be elected or 
otherwise to obtain positions they never were fit- 
ted for. (5) Politics advance some. Wire pulling 
is not all a thing of the past. (6) A determina- 
tion to dominate places some in the lead while the 
meek man, no matter how great his ability, is 
most always ruled. 

"The rank is tout the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gold, for a' that." 

"I have seen servants upon horses, and princes 

walking as servants upon the earth" (Eccl. 10:7). 

But what about all this and holiness? Much 
every way. You can never judge a man's experi- 
ence either by the position he holds or the esteem 
he is held in by others. Shine where you are, even 
though it should be on the back side of some des- 
ert. 

Education has its disadvantages as well as its 
advantages, according to the system under which 



Holiness and the Human Element 105 

we are trained. Before we too harshly condemn 
any person would it not be well to ask ourselves 
the question, ''Would I have done any better in my 
brother's circumstances ?" But you say that he 
has the same opportunities and light that you 
have. It may be, but we must remember that in- 
dividuals differ greatly in their capacity for re- 
ceiving and obeying light. The Lord recognizes 
this as a fact, and says, "Of some have compas- 
sion, making a difference: and others save with 
fear, pulling them out of the fire." 

An ignorant man can be as holy in the sight of 
God, if not as great in the sight of men, as his 
more highly favored brother. The way is before 
us and we can walk it even though we may be ig- 
norant. 

6. Then there is the matter of judgment. The 
Bible says that "every way of a man is right in 
his own eyes ;" and that includes his own estima- 
tion of his own judgment. But when all has been 
said concerning the reliability of any man's judg- 
ment there is a vast chasm between it and per- 
fection. Man knows no perfection except the per- 
fection of love, and that is not of the human, it is 
God-given. Why should one mortal man look on 
another mortal man and pass sentence on the 
character of his judgment, and thus virtually say, 
"If I had been in his place," etc.? All men will 
err in judgment as long as they are in the flesh, 
no matter what position they may occupy, humble 
or exalted. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

INFIRMITIES OF THE SPIRIT. 

III. Infirmities of the spirit. Concerning in- 
firmities of the spirit, Wesley says : "From wrong 
judgments, wrong words and actions will neces- 
sarily flow; and, in some cases, wrong affections 
may also spring from the same source. I may 
judge wrong of you; I may think more or less 
highly of you than I ought to think ; and this mis- 
take in my judgment may not only cause some- 
thing wrong in my behavior, it may have a still 
deeper effect; it may occasion something wrong 
in my affection. From a wrong apprehension, I 
will love and esteem you either more or less than 
I ought. Nor can I be freed from a liability to 
such a mistake while I remain in a corruptible 
body. A thousand infirmities, in consequence of 
this, will attend my spirit, till it returns to God 
who gave it. And, in numberless instances, it 
comes short of doing the will of God, as Adam did 
in Paradise." 

At first thought one who is accustomed, and 
properly so, to have a high ideal of the perfec- 
tions of holiness will be shocked when it is stated 
that there are infirmities which still remain with 
the sanctified soul. When we say "infirmities" we 
do net mean "sins," but that which Fletcher calls 
involuntary lack of power. Apply this definition 
106 



Holiness and the Human Element 107 

to the specific manifestations of your own spirit- 
ual life and activities and perhaps you will begin 
to realize its justice. 

So few ever trouble themselves to search into 
the deep things of the Spirit, and are so accus- 
tomed to accept as law and gospel and to take into 
their theological creed every peculiar experimen- 
tal speculation of their teachers, that they are apt 
to be surprised when they are told that they have 
placed the standard of holiness too high or too 
low, and that one reason for their inability to 
stand is their errors in doctrine. Fletcher says : 

"Some people aim at Christian perfection, but, 
mistaking it for angelic perfection, they shoot 
above the mark, miss it, and then peevishly give 
up their hopes. Others place the mark too low: 
hence it is that you hear them profess to have at- 
tained Christian perfection When they have not so 
much as attained the serenity of a philosopher, or 
the candor of a good natured, conscientious 
heathen." 

Concerning infirmities of the spirit, the first 
thing we notice is that there is a limit to the spir- 
itual power or ability (in the human agent) to ac- 
complish things. Who among us has succeeded 
in saving as many souls or doing as much good as 
he would? The person who has certainly does 
not have a very high standard, at least not as high 
as some who will not be satisfied unless they see 
the world bowing at Jesus' feet. Again we quote 
from Fletcher : 



108 Holiness and the Human Element 

"If we consider our Lord Jesus Himself as a 
man, did He do all the good He would while He 
was upon earth? Did He preach as successfully 
as His perfect love made Him desire to do? If 
He had all the success He desired in His minis- 
try, why did He look round about upon His hear- 
ers 'with anger, being grieved for the hardness 
of their hearts ? Why did He weep and complain, 
'How often would I have gathered you/ etc., 'and 
ye would not?' Were even His private instruc- 
tions so blessed to His own disciples as He could 
have wished? If they were, what meant these 
strange expostulations? 'How is it that ye have 
no faith?' 'Faithless generation, how long shall I 
be with you?' 'Hast thou been so long with me, 
Philip, and yet hast thou not known me?' 'Will 
ye also go away?*" 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LACK OF SPIRITUAL VISION. 

Again, we would state that with the most keen- 
sighted saints there still lingers such a measure of 
inability to see that at times it becomes very 
noticeable. That is, while they see some things 
clearly, other things they fail to see. 

There is a dimness of vision which comes from 
the presence of the carnal mind. Carnality is 
blinding. Our first parents put on leaf aprons 
and thought they were covered, they skulked 
among the trees of the garden and flattered them- 
selves that they were hidden. Ever since that day 
men have been carnally blind to the real facts of 
the glaring visibility of their sins, as well as blind 
to their own heart conditions and the condition of 
the world around them. Besides all this they do 
not know God and are blind to the fact that they 
are led captive by the devil at his will. 

Carnality is the owlet atheism that closes its 
blue-fringed eyelids tight, and, flying athwart the 
glorious sun in heaven, hoots, "Where is it?" 

Carnality is a horse with blinders which can see 
nothing but its own path, self-sufficient, filled 
with its own ways. 

Carnality is a bat that delights in the darkness, 
and covers with its demon wings every good 
thing. 

109 



110 Holiness and the Human Element 

Carnality is a mole that burrows amid the clay 
of earth, feeds on its filth and hates the light of 
day. 

Nothing good can be said of carnality. It is 
evil, only evil and always evil! When this hate- 
ful thing is under consideration, we cry, 

"Death, and only death for him, 

Without pity, limb from limb, 

Hew him with the Spirit's mighty, flaming sword." 

But in our zeal to escape carnality we should 
not rush men into an impossible task of endeavor- 
ing to become omniscient. Only God sees all. 
Perhaps angels see enough that they never mis- 
take, but men are so blind naturally that they 
never will, in this life, get beyond mistakes in 
spiritual vision. There are various reasons for 
this lack of vision — perhaps we should not say 
blindness. 

The world does not believe in the Spirit, from 
the fact that it does not see Him. Christians 
have a spiritual vision of Jesus. 

Men are materialists. In proportion as they 
learn to look beyond the material and are govern- 
ed by the spiritual, in that proportion they become 
spiritually minded. Since men live in material 
bodies, speak with material tongues, hear with 
material ears, feel with material hands and see 
with material eyes, it stands ±o reason that they 
to some extent judge, weigh, and draw conclu- 
sions from the material point of view. But this 
view may be wrong, and while the soul may dis- 



Holiness and the Human Element 111 

cover this error it is entirely possible that it may 
not. 

A worshiper shouts the praises of God. One 
persons says, "That shout is surely of God"; an- 
other says, "I can not see any God in it." Both of 
these persons who expressed their opinions were 
good men, but one was surely mistaken, and this 
mistake was doubtless caused by a lack of spirit- 
ual insight. 

An evangelist preaches. One says that that 
preacher is not of God, another man declares he 
was overwhelmed with a sense of the divine pres- 
ence. Some one has mistaken the preacher. 
Either the first man has misjudged because he did 
not feel any special blessing on his own soul or did 
not discern his ideal of power, or it may be the 
second man is mistaken in ascribing to the preach- 
er a blessing which originated in his own soul. 
The first man may have judged by the sight of his . 
eyes. One thing is sure, infallibility of spiritual 
sight is not a necessary accompaniment of holi- 
ness of heart. 

Then this lack of spiritual vision may be caused 
by errors in education. It is a noted fact that 
seme very spiritual people have held some very 
erroneous doctrines. We need only to cite the 
reader to the Catholicism of Madam Guyon and 
Fenelon, the mystical tendencies of George Fox, 
which caused him to reject all ordinances, or the 
asceticism of Origen, Tertullian and hundreds of 
others. 



112 Holiness and the Human Element 

One of the most spiritual of New Testament 
commentators is Pasquier Quesnel, a Jansenist 
Catholic. In spite of the occasional Roman Cath- 
olic errors of his doctrine he was so spiritual that 
he drew down upon himself the anathemas of the 
pope,and that impostor condemned the writings of 
Quesnel in a bull in which were cited one hundred 
and one so-called errors. Quesnel died in exile. 
Concerning this seeming contradiction, in the in- 
troduction to Quesnel's "Reflections on the Gos- 
pels/' Daniel Wilson says : 

"And when we see the eminent, the almost un- 
paralleled attainments in the spiritual life, of such 
men as Pascal, Nicole, Quesnel — when we see their 
love to God, their separation from the vanities of 
the world, their holy communion of prayer, their 
sense of the unutterable evil of sin — their appre- 
hension of the divine grace, as the source of all 
good — their simple, fervent, self-denying love of 
Christ — their compassion and zeal for the souls of 
their fellow-creatures ; we must acknowledge that 
intellectual errors are less valid to overthrow than 
moral and affectionate emotions of the soul are 
powerful to sustain the spiritual life. The Chris- 
tian lives by love, not by doctrine. If there be 
light enough in the understanding to lead to an 
acquaintance with ourselves and with Jesus 
Christ, our attainments will go on in proportion 
to our holy affections, our fervent prayers, our 
measure of the Holy Spirit, our self-abasement 



Holiness and the Human Element 113 

and our union with Christ, the Head of all influ- 
ence and grace." 

Again, a lack of spiritual vision may be caused 
by a lack of reasoning powers. It is not necessary 
that men possess gigantic reasoning powers to be 
wholly sanctified. They must know enough to rec- 
ognize God and their own spiritual duties, but be- 
yond this they may know very little. Most peo- 
ple live by impulse, not by reason. Deficient reas- 
oning powers may be assisted or quickened by the 
incoming of holiness, and while they may, yet 
they doubtless will not be made strong. The man 
who lived by impulse before his conversion will 
generally do the same afterward ; that is his men- 
tal make-up and he can not change it. We all 
know that a conclusion formed by impulse is not 
as reliable as one formed by good, normal reason- 
ing, and a conclusion concerning spiritual mat- 
ters formed by impulse is not as dependable as one 
which will bear the scrutiny of intelligent investi- 
gation. 

To be sure there is such a thing as divine im- 
pulse, or being moved by the Holy Ghost, and we 
would be the last to disparage it, but God has 
warned us not to believe every spirit, and has told 
us to put each to the test. Here we note that 
there is such a thing as a lack of the power of 
spiritual discernment which will allow some on 
the spur of the moment, or because of strong ap- 
peal, to form wrong conclusions of duty. Infalli- 
ble understanding of one's whole duty is not an 



114 Holiness and the Human Element 

absolute essential to holiness of heart, neither 
does strong spiritual vision prove that the heart is 
clean. 

Finally, lack of spiritual vision may be caused 
by a lack in the faculty which discerns the fitness 
of things. Neither is this faculty infallible. It is 
barely possible that some who have been so for- 
tunate as to sit on the stationing committee have 
realized their own lack of a sense of fitness in 
stationing the preachers, or if they have failed to 
see it themselves, others have seen it for them. 
Stationing committees are not infallible. It is 
possible that a preacher, a holy man, will reprove 
when he should comfort, or comfort when he 
should reprove; he might preach holiness when 
justification is needed, or talk when he should be 
praying. Preachers are not infallible. A layman 
might stay at home when he should go to meeting, 
or withhold when he should give, or possibly he 
might give when he should withhold. Laymen are 
not infallible. With all of us there lingers a sur- 
prising lack of fitness. If the reader should think 
himself exempt, this very fact proves his lack of 
self-discernment. The old heathen said, "Know 
thyself," but while the Christian approaches the 
ideal, yet even he has not thoroughly mastered 
his subject. 

This blindness is often manifested in a lack of 
ability to see one's own faults and a persistency in 
seeing the faults of others. We will never forget 
the picture in an old reader : A tall, stoop-should- 



Holiness and the Human Element 115 

ered man is walking along the path, behind him 
is a little hunchback pointing at the tall man's 
stoop shoulders and grinning. We often think of 
this picture when we see holiness (?) professors 
perfectly unconscious of their own faults and al- 
ways ready to see the faults of others. "Why be- 
holdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, 
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own 
eye?" 

Our eyes are not set in our heads for introspec- 
tion but for extraspection. Until God opens our 
eyes we see others and not ourselves. Possibly 
with all of us there still remain some things about 
ourselves to learn. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WANDERING THOUGHTS. 

The question arises, How far are wandering 
thoughts consistent with the experience of holi- 
ness? 

Some answer that if a man's heart is clean his 
mind will never wander. We do not hesitate to 
stamp this statement as untrue. Why do men per- 
sist in raising impossible standards, and holding 
people to an unattainable line of things? Holi- 
ness itself is a glorious experience, and, if pre- 
sented in its actual light, free from all exaggera- 
tion on the one hand and looseness on the other, 
or as nearly so as the human mind is capable of 
definition, it will attract honest souls, but if the 
doctrine is surrounded with physical, mental and 
moral impossibilities or inconsistencies we can not 
blame our hearers for becoming discouraged and 
at times disgusted. 

There is a saying that has been repeated so 
often that it has become threadbare, to the effect 
that we cannot keep the birds from flying over 
our heads, but we can keep them from building 
nests in our hair. We would suggest as a para- 
phrase: We cannot keep the unclean birds of 
earth or hell from presenting evil thoughts to our 
minds, but we can have our hearts so renovated 
116 



Holiness and the Human Element 117 

by the blood of Jesus Christ that such thoughts 
will find no lodgment in us; yea, more, we can 
have such clean hearts that they (our hearts) will 
not hatch, or originate one unclean thought, and 
will utterly despise the vile suggestions of the 
devil. And we would go one step further: The 
more godlikeness we possess the greater victory 
we will have over wicked suggestions, and the less 
ability the devil will have to inject his trash. 

This subject of wandering thoughts is not only 
interesting, but it is to the highest degree impor- 
tant. We have heard some very fine distinctions 
drawn which left the inquirer as much in the dark 
as he was before. For instance, there is a differ- 
ence between evil thoughts and thoughts of evil. 
To be sure this is true, but the thing which puz- 
zles the novice, and sometimes older ones, is to 
decide which is which, and he also wonders 
whether the birds are just flying over or have 
they commenced to build in his hair. You will 
remember that when Bunyan's pilgrim was pass- 
ing through the valley of humiliation evil spirits 
whispered blasphemy in his ears, and the pilgrim 
thought it was his own heart that was blasphem- 
ing. Perhaps you never went through this valley. 
Some people have, and can testify to the truth of 
Bunyan's picture. 

There are two sorts of wandering thoughts: 
those that wander from God and those that wan- 
der from the particular point in view. The form- 
er are sinful, the latter are not. (Note: In 



118 Holiness and the Human Element 

some of the positions taken in what follows we 
wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to Wes- 
ley's sermon on "Wandering Thoughts.") 

Concerning thoughts that wander from God: 
These thoughts proceed from and are a sure sign 
of an unclean fountain. That man whose whole 
aim and study is the world and the things of the 
world — what shall I eat, drink and wear, what 
shall I see, hear or gain, how shall I please my- 
self, my neighbors, the world? — this man's heart 
is far from God. The constant aim of the holy 
man is to occupy himself as little as need be with 
worldly pursuits and callings, and when this ne- 
cessity is ended his heart rests in God. Because 
he is finite he may not always properly gage his 
necessities, but his heart is in God, all else is sec- 
ondary. 

All carnal thoughts, unbelief, doubtfulness of 
God's providences, all murmuring and repining, 
all proud and vain imaginations, all angry, mali- 
cious or revengeful thoughts, all desire for the sin- 
ful pleasures of the world — all these are sinful 
and draw the heart from God. A secret delight 
to dwell in imagination on sinful pursuits or 
things is a sure sign of a carnal heart. For illus- 
tration : the enemy suggests a vision of past sinful 
indulgences, it may be with the thought of present 
possibilities. Thus far the heart may be clean. 
But if, after a short time the person thus attacked 
arouses to the realization that there is in the very 
inmost soul a something that has held to the sin- 



Holines and the Human Element 119 

ful suggestion and has reenacted past events with 
a pleasurable feeling or an almost unconscious de- 
sire for present gratification, then there is proof 
positive that there is in the soul an unclean prin- 
ciple, a carnai fountain. A saved soul immediate- 
ly rejects all known unclean or sinful thoughts, a 
sanctified soul has nothing within that clings to 
the sinful ; when Satan comes he hath nothing in 
the clean man — nothing sinful to agree with the 
enemy. 

We believe and wish to impress the thought, 
that at the door of every clean soul there is a 
monitor, never off guard (called in one place the 
shield of faith; in another, He that keepeth Is- 
rael), which immediately, and it may be almost 
unconsciously, recognizes sinful approaches, and 
sets up an impassable barrier to their entrance. 
There may be a struggle, but if we trust God the 
victory is sure. 

A man can judge his spiritual standing by the 
moral standard of the things his heart ponders 
with pleasure. 

Now concerning those wandering thoughts 
which do not depart from God, but simply wander 
from the particular point in view. The ability to 
hold one's self to any particular line of thought 
depends as much or it may be more, on the mental 
make-up of the person than it does on his spiritual 
standing. Horace Greeley wrote some of his edi- 
torials Which stirred the country, sitting 
on some person's doorstep or elsewhere in the 



120 Holiness and the Human Element. 

streets of New York, and the crowds surging by 
never seemed to break the continuity of his 
thought, or the consistency of his argument. We 
read of a young man who learned a long poem in a 
specified length of time, while his comrades did 
all they could, except touch him, to detract his at- 
tention. This is the power of concentration, and 
is a mental and not a spiritual accomplishment. 

You have heard preachers who could not hold 
to one consecutive line of argument for five min- 
utes by any possibility. You have heard people 
sitting and conversing on innocent subjects, and 
have noticed them jump from one theme to an- 
other, never holding long to one point. Two old 
people will bring up remembrances reaching all 
the way from old Indianny to sunny Calif orny; 
from their childhood in the backwoods to these 
days of airplanes and automobiles ; from who mar- 
ried Jane Hawkins to who preached in the log 
schoolhouse in '59; barn raisings, husking bees, 
spelling schools, sleigh-rides, and what not, all 
come in for their share. We say this is a sign of 
the infirmities of old age, but possibly some signs 
might be found in the younger generation. 

The understanding is immediately affected by a 
diseased body, and at such times consecutiveness 
of thought is extremely difficult. This wandering 
may range all the way from a passing fancy to 
temporary delirium or even raging madness. 
Nervous disorders are noted for their tendency to 



Holiness and the Human Element 121 

unsettle the mind and keep it from performing its 
legitimate functions. 

The old Mystics made much of meditating on 
the passion of Christ. But with some it is impos- 
sible, without some tangible purpose in view, to 
keep their minds in one place for any length of 
time. In God's law the holy soul meditates day 
and night, but the weary brain may travel the 
wide world around. 

Then the various things and circumstances with 
which we are surrounded have a tendency to de- 
tract the mind, and it is impossible for the holiest 
to become at all times thoroughly disengaged. A 
passing automobile, a ringing bell, a screeching 
train, a crying child, an impertinent mosquito, all 
call for their share of attention, and momentarily 
draw the mind from the most intricate thoughts. 

Then, as Wesley suggests, sometimes our minds 
are too heavy, dull and languid to pursue long one 
chain of thought. Some preachers insist on fill- 
ing in forty-five minutes or an hour with one 
heavy thought after another, and never relieve 
their discourse with some interesting illustration, 
and as a consequence the mental strain of the 
hearers is not relieved from beginning to end. Not 
one mind in ten (and that is quite liberal) is able 
to follow such a discourse through to its end. The 
mind is languid and stubbornly refuses to take it 
in. This may be a lack of mental capacity in the 
hearers, but it is surely not of necessity a lack of 
holiness. 



122 Holiness and the Human Element 

Then, either pleasure or pain may cause the 
mind to wander from the point in hand. An ach- 
ing head, a sour stomach, twitching rheumatism, 
the odor of a rose, the sound of beautiful music, 
will cause one to leave the point m hand, and he 
may never be able to recall that thought again. 

These are some causes of wandering thoughts, 
and such thoughts are no more sinful than the 
motion of the blood in the veins. 

To sum up the whole in the language of Wesley : 

'*To expect deliverance from these wandering 
thoughts which are occasioned by evil spirits is to 
expect that the devil should die or fall asleep, or, 
at least, should no more go about as a roaring 
lion. To expect deliverance from those which are 
occasioned by other men is to expect either that 
men should cease from earth, or that we should be 
absolutely secluded from them, and have no inter- 
course with them ; or that having eyes we should 
not see, neither hear with our ears, but be as 
senseless as stocks or stones. And to pray for de- 
liverance from those which are occasioned by the 
body is, in effect, to pray that we may leave the 
body. Otherwise it is praying for impossibilities 
and absurdities ; praying that God would reconcile 
contradictions, by continuing our union with a 
corruptible body without the natural, necessary 
consequences of that union. It is as if we should 
pray to be angels and men, mortal and immortal, 
at the same time. Nay ! — but when that which is 
immortal is come, mortality is done away. 



Holiness and the Human Element 123 

"Rather let us pray, both with the spirit and 
with the understanding, that all these things may 
work together for our good; that we may suffer 
all the infirmities of our nature, all the interrup- 
tions of men, all the assaults and suggestions of 
evil spirits, and in all be 'more than conquerors.' 
Let us pray, that we may be delivered from all 
sin ; that both root and branch may be destroyed ; 
that we may be cleansed from all pollution of flesh 
and spirit, from every evil temper, and word, and 
work ; that we may love the Lord our God with all 
our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, 
and with all our strength ; that all the fruit of the 
Spirit may be found in us, — not only love, joy, 
peace, but also longsuffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, fidelity, meekness, temperance. Pray that 
all these things may flourish and abound, may in- 
crease in you more and more, till an abundant en- 
trance is ministered unto you, into the everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." 



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